WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- After primary night, John Byrne trailed Bill Sheridan by seven votes in the GOP race for the 116th Assembly District.

But Monday, absentees were counted, and when Sheridan's lead only grew to 20 after the count in his home county, it seemed like a foregone conclusion. John Byrne won Jefferson County's absentees by 71 and the primary by 51.

"That tells me I have a lot of work ahead of me, because now we know we have a big objective here. That's to win back the Assembly district so that we can bring more jobs to the area," Byrne said of the upcoming weeks.

It'll be a rematch for Byrne against Addie Russell, whom he led two years ago after election night only to lose, ironically enough, after the absentee count.

Byrne says he's thankful voters put their trust in him again and Sheridan will as well.

The two actually agreed to not attend the absentee count Monday and to not hire lawyers to check every ballot. The GOP says that rare decision came about because everyone wanted to put the party first.

"By doing that, it showed a unification of the party and the two candidates," St. Lawrence County GOP Chair Tom Jenison said. "Consequently, whoever won, and obviously John Byrne won today, support will be going to him fully from Bill Sheridan, and it would have gone the other way as well."

"Of course, you want to be in there and be a part of the excitement, but I knew deep down inside that both chairmen, I have a lot of confidence in both of them, and my primary opponent obviously did as well," Byrne said.

"Both of them understood that. They understood that working together is the way to have someone win from the Republican Party in that district this year," Jefferson County GOP Chair Don Coon said.

The three also say this allowed every vote in a very close race to count. Instead of lawyers challenging and throwing out ballots, not one vote was challenged.

"All of those Republicans that voted absentee wanted those votes to count and so did we. So did both candidates," Coon said.

Now the attention shifts to the general election in November. The GOP wants to better understand what Byrne's camp did right and wrong in 2014, and what it needs to do now.

It's estimated each candidate also saved about $4,000 in lawyer fees by not having them at the count.