The Democratic nomination in the race for Syracuse mayor remains up for grabs.

Candidates Khalid Bey and Michael Greene — both city common councilors — are locked in a political battle that will be decided by absentee ballots after Tuesday’s primary elections left the race too close to call.

According to the Onondaga County Board of Elections' unofficial results as of 11 p.m. with all precincts reporting, Bey leads slightly with 50.95% of the vote, while Greene has 49.6%. Only 46 votes separate the candidates at this time. There are about 550 of absentee ballots to be counted in the coming week.

The Bey campaign said they were expecting a close race, but only a 4-to-5 percent margin between candidates. The candidate said low voter turnout indicates an issue of appealing voters.

“I’m certainly appreciative that — so far — a majority of the voters supported me," Bey said. "I’ll take 46, but hopefully when the absentees are counted, the outcome will be the same or greater."

If he loses the race, Bey said he won’t run on any other party line.

Greene also spoke to supporters after it became clear a winner won't be known just yet.

"By our calculations, we need to win about 53% of the absentee votes," Greene said in a short speech. "We feel that's incredibly possible. We've run a strong absentee ballot program. We've texted the absentee voters, we've called them, we've sent letters to them, so we feel strong about our chances to win this."

Whoever wins the race will face independent incumbent Mayor Ben Walsh, as well as Janet Burman, who is the projected candidate on the Republican ticket after winning her primary Tuesday.