It took most of the night to declare a winner, but for Jeff Holland the results were well worth waiting for.

More than four hours after the polls closed Tuesday, Holland secured the win over Marty Crevitt for the District 4 seat on the Warren County Board of Supervisors.

After each of the precincts in District 4 had reported, Holland held a slim 46-vote lead over Crevitt. With 114 absentee ballots received from District 4 voters, a winner could not be declared without counting them.

Once absentee votes were counted, Holland had secured enough votes to claim victory. The unofficial results showed Holland earned 1,154 votes compared to Crevitt’s 1,097 votes.

“My gracious I did win,” Holland said after hearing he had earned enough votes to claim victory. “There is a sense of elation, but with absolute knowledge that people voted for this for a reason. They have expectations. We have things to do.

“I am not good at celebrating at times, but a lot of people worked for this to happen, and after they get done celebrating, it will be time to get to work.”

Crevitt had earned a spot in Tuesday’s general election by defeating incumbent District 4 Supervisor John Carlisle in August’s party primaries. Since Holland ran as an independent, he did not need to compete in a party primary.

“Both Marty and I were both interested in change,” Holland said, acknowledging the race between him and Crevitt was always going to be a close race. “I think we had a different vision of what that change should be and that difference in vision was perhaps the difference in the race.”