To Erin Murphy, the final if unofficial numbers from Tuesday’s election show that she won an at-large seat on the Boston City Council by finishing in fourth place among the eight finalists in Tuesday’s citywide election just barely ahead – by 325 votes – of David Halbert, who, like Murphy, a Dorchester resident, had not conceded as of Wednesday morning.

As to the larger picture, voters, by a large margin, returned at-large incumbents Michael Flaherty (17.4 percent of the 143,547 ballots cast) and Julia Mejia (17.2 percent) to the Council chambers and then firmly placed Mattapan’s Ruthzee Louijeune (15.28 percent) in third place well ahead of Murphy and Halbert at 11.99 and 11.90 percent, respectively.

Murphy, a longtime schoolteacher who ran in 2019, claimed a fourth-place finish before the final numbers were in. On Wednesday morning, she said she had fielded a congratulatory phone call from Mayor-elect Wu and had been invited to visit the council meeting as a guest of Councillor Flaherty. Like Wu, Murphy will be sworn in on Nov. 16.

“I want to congratulate all of the candidates,” she said. I feel we ran a strong, positive campaign. We worked really hard and it paid off. We knew it would be close for fourth, but we were able to pull out the vote across the city and not just in pockets that were in my base.”

A recount is still possible. When reached on Tuesday morning, Halbert said his campaign was awaiting final confirmation that all mail-in ballots had been counted. “It is imperative that we wait until the final results are confirmed by the City in this historic election," he said.

The at-large field of eight included a South Boston ironworker, a Mattapan attorney, and a former schoolteacher from Dorchester, among others. The September preliminary had winnowed a field of 17 candidates to 8 for the final election.

Finishing sixth was Carla Monteiro, at 11.1 percent, followed by Bridget Nee-Walsh at 7.69 percent and perennial candidate Althea Garrison at 6.97 percent.

Polls early in October rightly indicated that the two candidates would cruise to reelection, with Louijeune, a Haitian-American attorney, finishing third.

With new colleagues at both the district and at-large level, Flaherty will play the role of the veteran member when the new council gets sworn in in January. The South Boston resident gave up his Council seat to unsuccessfully run for mayor in 2009, then returned to the council in 2013.

Mejia, a Dorchester resident and former MTV producer, was also up for reelection. She won her seat by a single vote in 2019.

For Murphy, a former schoolteacher, the 2021 campaign was her second citywide attempt after she fell short in 2019. 

Speaking to the Reporter before the polls closed on Tuesday, Monteiro, a social worker raised in Dorchester and the daughter of Cape Verdean immigrants, credited the property service workers union known as SEIU 32BJ with providing key ground support for her campaign. Her mother joined the union in 2013 when she was hired by Boston Medical Center, and Monteiro remembers the moment as a “huge turning point” for her financially struggling family.

The union’s endorsement helped others see her as a viable candidate, according to Monteiro. “If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know if I would’ve gained the momentum.”