The St. Paul mayoral race will not be determined until Wednesday at the earliest, with Mayor Melvin Carter holding a narrow lead after first-choice votes were counted.

Preliminary results show Carter leading by just over 1,600 first-choice votes, garnering 40.83% of the total compared to Her's 38.43%.

Three other challengers each won less than 10% of first-choice votes, with biophysicist Yan Chen at 9.69%, business owner Mike Hilborn at 8.58% and engineer Adam Dullinger at 2.41%.

More than 50% of votes is needed to declare a race under a ranked-choice voting system.

It means that counting will continue on Wednesday, with the second- and third-choice votes of the lowest ranked candidates, continuing until someone reaches 50%.

Whoever wins will serve a three-year term through 2028, as S

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