New London — The top seven vote-getters in the City Council election Tuesday are assured of their two-year terms, despite a preliminary report that there was to be a mandatory recount.

Democratic Registrar of Voters William Giesing believed late Tuesday night that the 22 votes separating the seventh and eighth voter-getters would require a recount.

But Wednesday he said the numbers are not close enough. Under state statutes, an automatic recount is triggered when a race is closer than one half of 1 percent of the total votes cast. For Tuesday's election, that number would have be 15, since 2,986 people voted for council and Board of Education candidates.

Republican Martin T. Olsen edged out Democrat Laura Natusch for the seventh seat on the council. Olsen received 1,327 votes to Natusch's 1,305, a 22-vote difference.

The political make-up of the council for the next two years will be six Democrats -- Michael Passero, Efrain Dominguez, Michael Tranchida, Anthony Nolan, Erica Richardson and Wade Hyslop -- and Olsen, the lone Republican.