Shortly after polls closed Tuesday, the San Rafael City Council District 3 race showed Daryoush Davidi leading by a razor’s edge of just 18 votes, with 1,656 votes for Davidi over Robert Sandoval’s 1,638.

District 2 incumbent Eli Hill won his seat unopposed for a second term.

“We are optimistic,” Sandoval said election night. “We will await the county’s process for counting ballots.”

Davidi was not immediately available for comment.

The District 3 seat was left open by Maribeth Bushey, who served on the council for 12 years and did not seek reelection. Incumbent

District 3 includes areas north of the San Rafael Canal, including Peacock Gap and the Marin County Civic Center and Fairgrounds. District 2 includes downtown and the Sun Valley neighborhoods.

Marin County’s Elections Department will be publishing results every two hours through midnight. The next results will be posted by 5 p.m. Thursday.

Davidi, 51, who immigrated to the United States as a child and was raised by a single mother, said his experiences shaped his commitment to community service. He earned a doctoral degree in multicultural community clinical psychology from Alliant University. He owns an organic specialty produce business and has worked with people experiencing homelessness and those living with serious mental health challenges.

Davidi was endorsed by the San Rafael Police Association union, the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, Vice Mayor Rachel Kertz and former Mayor Gary Phillips, among others.

Sandoval, 35, is a senior legal counsel and former California deputy attorney general. The son of Mexican American and Jewish parents, he has a law degree from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree from Occidental College. Sandoval also serves on the Marin County Planning Commission and has chaired the San Rafael Park and Recreation Commission.

Sandoval was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, Hill and the Marin County Democratic Party, among other community leaders.

Hill, 49, previously served on the city’s planning and fire commissions and was president of the Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers. He has a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering from UC Berkeley and works for a consulting firm that helps government organizations use data and technology to address complex challenges.

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.