Now officially elected, candidates Walser and Harding said they are set to begin the new term, in which a new round of teacher negotiations as well as a predicted tight budget season will be large issues.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Walser said. “It’s going to be a challenging two years.”

The recount process is now officially over. After this morning’s declaration of the elected candidates, law prevents any further recounting.

“[I am] glad we’re done,” Drugan said. “We couldn’t do anything else if we wanted to. It would be illegal.”

Although defeated candidate Segat could go to court with objections to the recount process, election commissioners believe legal action to be highly unlikely.

“There was no sense of unfairness. Everyone feels they were fully consulted throughout the process,” Drugan said. “There’s no indication of [further legal action] whatsoever.”

Today the Election Commission will meet again to redistribute the votes on ballots which indicated Segat as their first choice. This process cannot change the result of who is elected, but could change the order of the elected candidates.

One unexpected change in the results of the recount is that Alfred B. Fantini, who had originally placed second trailing first place candidate Alice B. Turkel by eight votes, gained enough votes in the recount to place him first by two votes.

“Here’s a candidate who benefited from the recount without even asking for it,” Drugan said of Fantini.

“I’ll take it as a mandate to lead and provide leadership to my colleagues,” Fantini said last night.

While Fantini’s displacement of Turkel for the top slot of the School Committee does not have any structural implications, it is expected to have political effects both for Fantini as well as for all independent candidates in Cambridge.

“It will have political repercussions,” Drugan said. “An independent topped the ticket in School Committee, as well as in the City Council.”

—Staff writer Stephanie M. Skier can be at skier@fas.harvard.edu