Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the mailbox, campaigning will resume in the Republican race for two Gwinnett commission positions. And some candidates say the coming weeks will be even busier than those preceding Tuesday's primary.

Charles Bannister didn't run away with the election for Gwinnett County Commission chairman Tuesday night, as he hoped he would, but will face challenger Lorraine Green in a runoff Aug. 5.

"It was almost close enough to win without a runoff," Bannister said Wednesday. "But it's just tough any time you get three people in a race."

The candidates will be back on the campaign trail in coming weeks, as they try to persuade voters to come back and vote one more time. It will be a tough sell: Only 15 percent of Gwinnett's approximately 350,000 registered voters came out on Tuesday; runoffs traditionally attract even fewer.

Green said she expects the next few weeks to be even busier than the ones leading up to the election.

"Runoffs are very different campaigns than the primary," Green said. "It's more grass-roots, keeping in touch with your base and motivating them to come back out."

There's also the matter of raising more campaign cash, she said, since the campaign had already spent a lot of money.

Both candidates will be trying to convert the 10,000-plus voters who supported first-time campaigner Glenn Pirkle to come over to their side.

It's not everyone who goes to the trouble of running for office, Bannister said, just to get his point across. The chairman said he'd be "discussing his issues" with Pirkle and asking for his support.

On that count, Green thinks she has an advantage.

"Those voters showed that they were unhappy with the status quo," she said. "And that's what our campaign has been about, changing the direction of Gwinnett County."

On Wednesday, Pirkle, a Buford electrical contractor, said he was surprised and "well-pleased" to have campaigned his way into a bargaining position.

"I was expecting 2 percent," Pirkle said, attributing his appeal to voters being upset and "ready for a change."

Would he endorse either of his opponents before the runoff?

Absolutely, Pirkle said on Wednesday: "But I can't let you know that until tomorrow." He was meeting with both, he said, to see what he could "get resolved."

"I want to finish what I started," Pirkle said, "which is I want rid of the storm-water fee."

If he can accomplish that, he added, he'd feel like he hadn't wasted his time.

In the contest to claim Green's old District 1 seat on the Gwinnett County Commission, the race was so close that third-place finisher Carol Hassell, who won 28.9 percent of the vote, is asking for a recount.

She won just 17 votes fewer than Bruce LeVell, who got 29.1 percent. In the runoff, LeVell will face former Duluth Mayor Shirley Lasseter, who led the night with 41.95 percent of the vote.

A recount probably will not change the outcome, elections supervisor Lynn Ledford said. Recounts typically only alter totals by one or two votes, if at all, she said. But it's Hassell's right, as the losing candidate, to request one. Hassell said she hadn't decided whether she'd endorse either one of her opponents.

Election results won't be certified until Friday afternoon, Ledford said at a meeting of the Board of Registration and Elections.

Those who voted Republican on Tuesday can only vote in the Republican runoff. Those who voted Democratic can only vote in Democratic runoffs.

Those who did not vote —- or only voted on the TAD question —- may vote in the Republican runoffs for the commission chairman and the District 1 seats.