PROVO — Mayor Lewis Billings appears to have beaten Dave Bailey again.

A difficult race that could have been seen as a referendum on how well Provo voters thought Billings did with his first two terms ended with a strong ratification of his performance.

More than three hours after polls closed and with 86 percent of votes counted, Billings led Bailey 62 percent to 38 percent. Billings became the second mayor in city history to win a third, four-year term, proving once again that he knows how to rally a majority of the city for his campaigns and projects.

"I think voters said, 'OK, you've done a good enough job, we want you to finish some of the things you've started,' " Billings said. "It's a great honor."

Bailey, who lost by only 362 votes in the 2001 race, wasn't ready to concede when 55 percent of the votes had been counted but recognized what he admitted was obvious.

"I think we're just prolonging the agony at this point," he said. "A miracle could happen, but that's what it would take at this point."

Cindy Richards had a massive lead in her bid for a third term on the City Council, leading challenger Adam Clark 71 percent to 29 percent. In other City Council races, former Mayor George Stewart led Mark Sumsion 54 percent to 46 percent, and challenger Cindy Clark unofficially defeated two-term incumbent Paul Warner, 51 to 49 percent, which was 42 votes.

Billings said the turning point in the campaign was a weekend where Bailey sent out two mailers that Billings said contained "blatant misrepresentation." The Billings campaign responded with a mailer titled "Fact vs. Fiction," which Billings said went through six printings because it proved so popular with voters.

"We tried to remind people that they live in one of the greatest communities in the nation," Billings said. "Provo really is better than ever. I think people wanted to embrace that positive theme. There was so much that was negative in this campaign. When he went negative this time, the momentum really swung. People fund-raised and worked like never before."

Bailey said it was Billings who went negative. He said the endorsement of Billings by Fire Chief Coy Porter and two former chiefs damaged morale in Provo's public safety departments, which have heavily backed Bailey, a retired Provo firefighter of 30 years.