A Washington city council candidate who said he “did not feel comfortable” voting for himself and considered it “kind of narcissistic” lost the city council seat race by a single vote.

Damion Green lost the Rainier city council seat to Ryan Roth by a one-vote margin in a close contest of 247 to 246 in Thurston County, in the state of Washington, in the United States, on 7th November.

After the count, the Thurston County Canvassing Board, noting the single-vote margin, decided to trigger a hand recount.

According to the board statement, “A manual recount occurs if the vote difference is less than 150 and less than a quarter of 1 per cent. The total vote difference between the candidates was 1 and the percentage difference was 0.2 per cent.”

Three unnamed board employees reportedly counted the votes and confirmed Roth as the winner.

One of the images shows when Roth was certified as the winner of the city council leader seat.

Green congratulated Roth on his new position and also said: “I don’t feel discouraged at all. We both have kids in the schools and are looking for the best thing for our community. We’re different people wanting the same thing.”

Green, who had previously run on two occasions for the council seat, added: “I can run again. The third time will be a charm.”

Roth, on the other hand, later said he also did not want to vote for himself and that the race would have been a tie, but his unnamed wife persuaded him to vote for himself.