VIDALIA — The rematch of the 2003 showdown for Concordia Parish sheriff was narrowed from the then 187-vote difference to an unofficial, but close, 22 votes, but in the end incumbent Sheriff Randy Maxwell won re-election Saturday night.

With 3,766 votes, Maxwell carried 50.15 percent of the vote, while challenger Glenn Lipsey had 49.85 percent of the vote with 3,744 ballots cast for him.

But with an only 22 vote difference, Lipsey said he isn’t out of fight yet.

“I know for sure that we’ve got approximately that number of votes that we have contested before the votes were counted, before the polls were closed,” he said.

Despite the close vote, Maxwell attributed his tentative win to hard work.

“Surely it was closer than we would have liked it to be, but second place doesn’t count in this arena,” he said, “We worked really hard, and the staff worked really hard.”

After 17 years as sheriff, Maxwell said he doesn’t have any special plans for when the returns to the office Monday.

“We’ll just roll up our sleeves and go to work,” he said.

Though he plans to challenge the election, Lipsey said looking back it was a good one.

“I’m glad that overall it was a clean campaign,” he said.

The high interest Lipsey-Maxwell rematch drew a total of 7,510 votes in Concordia Parish, more votes than the state-level races for lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, agriculture and forestry commissioner and insurance commissioner.