Chris Rieder appears to have defeated Chris Smith in a close primary for the Republican nomination for the Bruin mayor’s office.

Rieder won in a 42-36 vote, according to unofficial results from Tuesday’s primary reported in Butler County Bureau of Elections summary reports.

The primary was close as Rieder and Smith each receiving 36 votes Tuesday at the polls, but six mail-in votes swung the nomination in Rieder’s favor.

Both candidates declined to comment on the results Tuesday night, May 20.

Rieder is a member of the Bruin Volunteer Fire Department fire police, and Smith works as a certified welder teaching welding and fabrication to court adjudicated youths, and represents the borough on the water authority board.

A little more than 41% of the borough’s 253 registered voters turned out for the primary, according to the unofficial results. Of those voters, 93, or 49%, of the 189 registered Republicans voted, and 11, or 33%, of the 33 Democrats voted. The borough’s 31 nonpartisan voters were not eligible to vote in the closed primary. No Democrats appeared on the ballot in the mayoral primary.