COHOES — The city's Democratic committee is reporting that Bill Keeler has won the spot as the Democratic candidate, beating out scandal-scarred incumbent Shawn Morse.

The Albany County Board of Elections reports an unofficial tally of Keeler with 972 votes and Morse with 869. There are about 300 absentees ballots out, and a 103-vote gap.

Morse faced three Democratic challengers: Keeler, Steve Napier and Peter Frangie.

More Capital Region results from Tuesday's primary elections

Voters had to either postmark their absentee ballots by end of day Monday, or have dropped them off in person before polls closed Tuesday. Tabulating those final results would then take days.

The Democratic mayoral contest, one of the most competitive in the city's modern history, was driven by controversies facing Morse.

Morse, 52, not only has a federal trial scheduled in July on charges he allegedly spent campaign money on trips and home repairs, he has faced allegations of domestic abuse as revealed in a series of investigations done by the Times Union.

As a steady stream of voters entered Holy Trinity Parish Center Tuesday evening, some residents remained loyal to Morse. Paul Billings said he grew up with the mayor, and said people should focus on the revitalization efforts Morse has pushed since first being elected in 2015. "Someone has to stick up for him," Billings said.

But another voter who said he grew up with Morse, who did not provide his name, said there have been too many controversies for the mayor to stay in office. The resident said he knows city police officers — whose union endorsed Keeler — as well as Napier. He declined to say who he voted for, other than, "I voted consciously for someone who won't dig Cohoes into a hole for the next 30 years."

In his defense, Morse touted that he has never been criminally charged in relation to those allegations, which included Child Protective Services investigating a claim from his teenage daughter that Morse had hit and choked her. A former girlfriend also provided details about Morse's past abuse, which she said was never addressed by Cohoes police because of Morse's status then as a city firefighter.

Morse has defended more recent allegations made by his wife and his daughter by saying his family is in turmoil, alleging his wife has substance abuse problems.

Read more about Morse's troubles.

The problems facing Morse caused Keeler, 56, to enter the race on a platform of bringing integrity back to City Hall.

Former city treasurer, and current construction manager, Peter Frangie, 47, said he had always intended to run for mayor when he quit his position shortly after Morse was elected mayor in 2016.

Common Council member Steve Napier, 35, who is a political strategist for a living, ran a campaign on specific changes he wants to make in city government as outlined in his 25-page booklet "The Napier Plan."

Despite the cloud hanging over the mayor, Morse had continued to maintain his loyal base - possibly signaling a win on primary night. Cohoes is overwhelmingly Democrat, so a win in the party's primary would likely solidify a general election victory in November.

During Morse's first run for mayor in 2015 against fellow Democrat Dianne Nolin, Morse earned 59 percent of the vote among some 3,000 voters. Turnout no doubt influenced the primary results Tuesday.

There are about 5,800 enrolled Democrats out of 9,200 registered voters in Cohoes.

Outside of the primary results, there are two candidates who will still be in the race this fall - Napier on the Independence and Working Families lines, and Keeler on the Conservative line. Napier has said he intends to continue to campaign during the general election; Keeler said he wanted to see what happens during the primary before making a decision about November.

If Morse won the primary, it would set up an unusual situation considering he faces possibly being convicted of a felony before the general election. Morse will have to resign his current position immediately if convicted - but he still would be on the Democratic line during the general election if he wins the primary. State election law does not specifically address what happens if a person is on the ballot but is convicted of a felony.