Posted: 10:45 p.m. CST

According to unofficial results, Republican Ken Mercer has been re-elected to the District 5 seat on the State Board of Education with 53.34 percent of the vote.

Mercer edged out three opponents—Democrat Rebecca Bell-Metereau, who recieved 41.06 percent of the vote; Libertarian Mark Loewe, who received 3.94 percent; and Green Party candidate Irene Meyer Scharf, who received 1.64 percent of votes, according to the unofficial tally.

With 67 percent of precincts reporting, Mercer has earned 310,327 total votes in the unofficial tally. Mercer was elected to a four-year term.

Mercer is a project manager and senior software engineer from San Antonio. He was first elected to the State Board of Education in 2006.

District 5 represents more than 1.5 million residents in Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Comal, Gillespie, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall and Llano counties, as well as parts of Bell, Bexar, and Travis counties.

The State Board of Education comprises 15 members elected to establish education policy for Texas public schools, oversee investment into the Permanent School Fund and make decisions about curriculum and standardized testing for the state's school districts.