A recount is underway in the Little Compton Town Council race, and state Board of Election officials should have it complete by late afternoon Friday.

The recount comes after Republican challenger Maureen Rego fell five votes short of the fifth and final open seat on the council, losing to incumbent Democrat Andrew Iriarte-Moore by 973 to 978 votes.

Rego requested the recount, and BOE officials said at a meeting Friday morning that the request qualifies under state law that allows the manual re-feeding of ballots in races in which a candidate lost by a margin of 2 percent or less.

BOE officials approved Rego's request unanimously and workers will manually re-feed Little Compton's ballots throughout the day on Friday. The board will reconvene and officially certify election results Tuesday afternoon, though they are expected to reach out to Rego later today to inform her of the results.

After voting closed last Tuesday, the original Little Compton tally gave incumbent town councilors Robert Mushen (R), Gary Mataronas (R), Patrick McHugh (D) and Paul Golembeske (R), as well as challenger Rego, enough votes to win the five open seats. And it left Iriarte-Moore, a two-term Democrat, two votes out of the running with 967 to Rego's 969.

However, after additional drop box ballots were processed last Thursday, Moore jumped ahead of Rego by five votes.