But in Draper - a city where six of 13 City Council candidates are moving on to vie for three seats - sixth-place Nick Ramond and seventh-place Paul Tonks woke up to a surprise.

When the city tabulated mail-in votes from its final precinct - part of the hillside SunCrest development that lies in Utah County - Tonks and Eric Helt both leapfrogged Ramond. That landed Tonks back in the race and Helt as the runner-up, pushing Ramond into an eighth-place finish.

Tonks, who learned the news from an early Wednesday phone call, described the situation as an emotional roller coaster.

"Last night I assumed they'd included the Utah County vote, so I thought that would do it for the race," Tonks said Wednesday. "Now I realize there's going to be a lot more work ahead, but I'm happy to do it.

"I'll take a couple days to enjoy life, and then I'll think through a strategy."

Despite getting the bad end of the surprise, Ramond said he was impressed with the voter turnout and was pleased to earn 150 more votes than the winner of the 2005 municipal primary. He said he'd rather lose and have more people get involved in the process than win with a low turnout.

"I hope it's not a fluke," Ramond said Wednesday. "I hope this is the first step in getting people more invested in the political process. If the trade-off is that I have to lose, I'm OK with that. I don't walk away feeling like I lost."

The surprise happened due to a boundary issue.

Draper's borders straddle the line between Salt Lake and Utah counties, so the city contracted with Salt Lake County to tally more than 7,600 votes in 32 southeast county precincts. But it mailed ballots to nearly 500 SunCrest residents who live in Utah County and counted the 254 votes cast.

The Salt Lake County tallies showed that Ramond squeaked into a sixth-place finish, with 29 more votes than Tonks. But the one remaining precinct was behind Tonks; SunCrest is his home neighborhood.

Tonks took the majority of votes with 86, Helt got 59 and Ramond seven.

The city anticipated the dual-county vote, but several candidates were upset with the process. Some complained that mailing ballots to voters in the county to the south gave candidates in SunCrest neighborhoods an unfair advantage.

Ramond said prior to the election that it was critical for all members of the community to have a voice. "It's more important that those people got their votes counted," he said. "But I sure would like to know where I stand and if I'm moving on to the general or not."

sgehrke@sltrib.com