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OGDEN - Mayor Matthew Godfrey, who after a week of uncertainty learned Tuesday that he was indeed re-elected, said the close election will not influence how he runs the Mayor's Office for the next four years.

"I don't make decisions based on what percentage of people voted for me," Godfrey, 37, said in a news conference soon after learning he had defeated Councilwoman Susan Van Hooser by 449 votes. It will be his third term.

After more than 1,300 absentee and provisional ballots were counted - a painstaking process that took the Weber County elections office a week - Godfrey had 51.4 percent of the vote. He had 7,244 votes to Van Hooser's 6,795.

The other close race, for an at-large two-year council seat, went to Blain Johnson, who led Sheila Aardema by 65 votes after all ballots were counted. Aardema had led by 18 votes on election night.

Nearly 46 percent of Ogden's voters cast ballots, substantially more than the 34 percent who cast ballots in Ogden's mayoral race four years ago.

Van Hooser said she plans no challenge to the count, but would like the city or county to investigate claims of voters who told her they were turned away at the polls without being offered provisional ballots. Godfrey said he has a list of people making similar allegations.

During the Board of Canvass on Tuesday evening, council member Dorrene Jeske refused to certify the election results.

"There was obviously incidents of electioneering and intimidation at the polls. A lot of people were denied their constitutional right to vote," Jeske said.

She did not directly accuse Godfrey's supporters, but such accusations have been swirling for a week.

Godfrey said earlier Tuesday that he has had "zero" reports of interference by his supporters who were poll watchers. He also defended as "extremely appropriate" his supporters challenging 150 potential voters who may have moved out of Ogden.

An extraordinarily high number of provisional ballots were cast. In the end, though, 443 of about 550 provisional ballots in the mayor's race were found to be legally cast and were counted.

Van Hooser said she was fine with the loss.

"We've raised a lot of issues the citizens are concerned about and which can no longer be ignored," she said.

The retired schoolteacher, appointed to the council 14 months ago, campaigned on the promise of reunifying a divided Ogden and making government more open.

Godfrey said he doesn't see that change is needed.

"I make decisions based on what's best for the community," Godfrey said. "My philosophy is not going to change at all."

Godfrey attributed the close race to the fact that after eight years of making tough decisions, he has made many people mad.

"It's really tough to get elected in a local community because they see what happens every day . . . and there are strong opinions on every issue.

"The easy decisions have all been made in this community. We've been left with the hard ones."

Besides continuing to attract ski and recreation companies to Ogden, Godfrey promised to work to reduce crime and remake the neighborhoods east of Washington Boulevard.

Hooper race

Hooper Mayor Glenn Barrow, who spent the past week trailing challenger Robert Gouer by 14 votes, pulled ahead Tuesday to win the race by six votes. After 128 absentee and provisional ballots were counted, Barrow had 701 to Gouer's 695 votes, Barrow said. Vicky Fowers won Hooper's District 2 Council seat by a 19-vote margin over incumbent Lyle Taylor.