BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- It's too close to call, but incumbent Democratic Mayor Matt Ryan feels confident he will be the one celebrating a victory next week after all the votes are counted for the Binghamton mayoral race.

The race between Ryan, Republican Rich David and Independent Doug Drazen was too close to call Tuesday night.

"I hate to take a shot at the press today , but the headline was uncalled for. I believe that might have had something to do with why this race was so close today. Those budget numbers were in quite awhile ago. They took a cheap shot at us and we still survived. So let's make sure as we go forward we make sure that we count these votes properly. We'll get all of our legal counsel there, make sure they are counted properly. And at the end of the day we will prevail," Ryan said.

Ryan currently leads with 40 percent of the vote, leading Republican Rich David by 61 votes.

David is calling the results of the election a virtual dead heat. The Republican told his supporters he's confident once the absentee ballots are counted, he will be the next mayor of Binghamton.

David says the close numbers reflect the city's discontent with the leadership of the current administration and their desire for a new leader at the helm.

"Clearly they are very unhappy and I'm very confident in the positive, grassroots, issue oriented campaign that I ran and I'm confident that when all of the absentee ballots are counted, it will be in my favor," David said.

There are 749 absentee ballots in the City of Binghamton.

The second time around was not the charm for Douglas Walter Drazen. The independent candidate finished a distant third in the Binghamton mayoral race.

Back in 2005, Drazen was actually leading with a third of the vote counted. That was not the case in 2009. Drazen found himself down early and ended up with about 20 percent of the vote before absentee ballots are to be counted. He says he's not sure why things turned out the way they did, but he knows he wouldn't have done anything different.

"We did it out way, we met all of our own expectations in terms of getting the message out, in terms of generating resources, in terms of making personal contact with the voters," Drazen said.

Drazen says he wishes luck for both Ryan and David and is hopeful things will change in the city.