GUILDERLAND — The absentee ballots have been counted in a town board race that was too close to call and the winners remain the same as they were immediately after the polls closed on Election Night.

As of Nov. 4, only 277 votes separated Republican Lee Carman, the top vote-getter, and Democratic incumbent Al Maikels, who had the votes.

Democrat Rosemary Centi was in second place and Republican Michele Coons was in third.

With more than 300 absentee ballots to be counted, it was still anyone’s race.

Democrat Peter Barber was secure in his position as the new town supervisor, with 399 more votes than Brian Forte, a fellow Democrat who chose to run on the Republican line when his own party did not endorse him.

The Albany County Board of Elections said this week that the ballots have now been counted and Carman and Centi are the next town board members.

Carman had 4,059 votes and Centi had 4,032. Coons received 3,891 and Maikels had 3,830. Just 229 votes separated all four.

Carman will be the only Republican member of the town board, the first since Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich decided not to run for re-election in 2012. He and Centi join Democrats Paul Pastore and Patricia Slavick.

Enrolled voters in Guilderland are 38 percent Democrat and 25 percent Republican; enrolled Conservatives number just 450, or 2 percent. The remaining 35 percent are enrolled in other small parties or are unaffiliated.

Carman, a banker, currently a county legislator, did not seek re-election for that role so he could run for the town board.

Centi was the town clerk for 13 years before retiring at the end of 2013.

Barber, a lawyer and long-time chairman of Guilderland’s zoning board, who widened his lead by 438 votes after the absentee ballots were counted, said he is looking forward to “governing as a Democrat.”

“We are the people who know what is best for the town; let’s not forget who we are,” said Centi.

Maikels, an accoutant, said he had “long ago made peace with the idea that this would be last campaign.”

Coons, who works for the state’s retail council, said she had known the race would be close, but that she’d thought she and Carman would prevail.