The election of 2016 had local, state and federal races with results that will be remembered for a long time to come.

A real estate developer/reality TV personality who many thought wouldn’t survive the primary season went on to crush his Republican opponents and then defeat his Democrat challenger for the White House.

A governor who signed the controversial HB2 measure into law, also known as the bathroom bill, lost to his attorney general challenger in a contest that stretched into December.

And in New Hanover County, voters still did not have the final results for the county commissioner’s contest as of mid-December.

While Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton was settled on Election Day, it wasn’t until some four weeks after the election that North Carolina knew who the governor would be.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory conceded the close gubernatorial race on Dec. 5 to his Democratic challenger, state Attorney General Roy Cooper.

The Republican incumbent had filed for a statewide recount in November, but lost any remaining hope of somehow scoring a re-election victory when Cooper’s lead had grown past 10,000. As of Dec. 5 Cooper was up by 10,563 votes, according to the North Carolina Board of Elections.

In New Hanover County, the race for a seat on the county board of commissioners lingered into December.

On election night, it appeared that Patricia Kusek had won the seat vacated by Beth Dawson, who had lost in the GOP spring primary. Incumbents Woody White and Jonathan Barfied Jr. won re-election bids, while Skip Watkins and Rob Zapple were not in an election year.

The tally difference between third-place Kusek, fourth-place Julia Boseman and fifth-place Derrick Hickey was less than 500 votes, so Boseman and Hickey requested recounts.

The official recount on Dec. 8 confirmed the results.

The last barrier to seating the new board of commissioners went by the wayside on Dec. 13, when the State Board of Elections dismissed a complaint by John Christian Anderson. This opened the way for the commissioners to be seated at the upcoming meeting Monday.

One vote that wasn’t close was the Wilmington Parks Bond, the first major funding referendum to improve the city’s parks and recreation facilities since 2006, which passed easily.

The ballot was for a $30.4 million bond package, but the city expects to supplement that money with existing construction funds to construct $38 million of projects. The city will repay the bond by raising taxes on Wilmington property, by 2.1 cents per $100 of property value.