Democratic candidates took early and strong leads in every municipal race in Annapolis except one Tuesday night: the race for Ward 1 alderman.

Harry Huntley, the incumbent, is 10 votes behind his challenger, Thomas Krieck, who ran unaffiliated.

Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Jared Littmann secured an early lead of almost 2,500 votes over Republican Bobby O’Shea, who conceded Tuesday night. In the state capital’s seven other wards, Democratic candidates for City Council have leads of between 180 and 289 votes over their unaffiliated or Republican challengers.

So what happened in Ward 1?

Huntley and Krieck both support moving forward with the redevelopment of City Dock (albeit Krieck wants to “rescope” parts of the project), both spoke out against the proliferation of short-term rentals and both talked about making parking downtown easier.

Krieck received 576 votes and Huntley received 566 on Election Day. In Ward 1, Littmann, the Democratic mayoral candidate, received 736 votes and O’Shea received 409 votes.

The number of mailed or drop-off ballots that will be counted Thursday appear to weigh heavily in the Democrats’ favor, according to unofficial tallies shared by the city Tuesday night.

In Ward 1, there were 464 Democratic mail-in ballots returned via mail or drop box. There were 111 Republican ballots returned and 112 unaffiliated ballots returned.

Huntley, who turns 28 Thursday, said he thought his race would be close. He called his contest “the scenario” of how a Democrat could lose in a heavily Democratic city — a tough primary followed by a general election where there’s a Democratic-leaning independent challenging a Democrat, with no Republican on the ballot.

Until recently Krieck was a registered Democrat, and he calls himself socially progressive but overall moderate. And in the Ward 1 race as in others across Annapolis, candidates stayed focused on local issues.

“I think that [Krieck] probably did particularly well with people who want to see a change to their property taxes,” Huntley said.

Krieck, on his campaign website, proposed reducing the city’s Homestead Property Tax Credit rate so it would match the rate in Anne Arundel County, meaning assessment increases would drop from a yearly maximum of 10% to 2%. He also proposed an ordinance that would freeze the city’s share of property taxes for residents who have lived there at least 20 years and are at least 70 years old.

Huntley, meanwhile, said he was focused on lowering the tax rate for everyone, not just people who have seen their home values increase the most.

Regardless, Huntley said he thinks the race will turn in his favor.

“We’d always rather be up by 10 votes than down by 10, but we’re confident that we will win this election once all the votes are counted,” he said.

Krieck, on the other hand, said he thinks the biggest difference between himself and Huntley is experience. Krieck, 67, has an MBA and decades of experience as a business executive.

Krieck said he wouldn’t be in his current position in the race without some support from Democratic voters, and he thinks that could continue to be reflected in the mail ballot totals.

“The crossover is there. Will it be enough? I don’t know. We’ll find out,” Krieck said. “It’s so close, you never know.”