Buoyed by incumbency and the Indian River Neighborhood Association, Vice-Mayor Sabe Abell won re-election for his third term on the Vero Beach City Council.

Abell was the top vote-getter garnering 3,642 votes in the three-seat race, while newcomer Kevin Sawnick, riding a wave of support from the IRNA among other political groups, came in second with 3,610 votes.

White will be serving his sixth term on the city council.

The mayor for Vero Beach is chosen by the city council and has no more power or duties than any other councilmember other than running the City Council meetings.

The new city council will meet for an organizational meeting on Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. to elect the new mayor and vice-mayor. Traditionally, the current mayor steps aside to allow the vice-mayor the honor of having the title and serving.

Council members Debra Fromang and Bill Fish were not up for re-election.

In elections in Indian River County, Republican Deryl Loar coasted to victory in the race for sheriff, collecting 44,350 votes (67 percent) to beat Democrat David Snell (16,514 votes, 25 percent) and Tony Consalo who ran without a party affiliation (5,292, 8 percent).

Republican incumbent Kay Clem easily defeated Colman Stewart with 61 percent of the votes cast (39,638) compared to 39 percent (25,673) for the Democratic challenger in the contest for supervisor of elections.

Also of note, in the race for school board, Claudia Jimenez edged Charlie Wilson by just 134 votes (28,086 to 27,952), which trigged an automatic recount set for Nov. 6 because the difference in the total was less than one-quarter of 1 percent.

In the two open races for county commissioner, incumbent Wesley Davis and former Vero Beach council member Bob Solari easily were elected.