MARVIN -- Marvin voters elected the town’s youngest-ever councilman Tuesday with a vote count that was 21 times his age — which is also 21.

Anthony Burman, a senior communications major at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, was the top vote getter in Marvin, receiving 447 votes, or 32 percent of the total. Ron Salimao, who at 59 was the oldest candidate, won a second council seat with 432 votes, 205 votes ahead of incumbent Vicki Lawton.

“I think it shows that age doesn’t really make that much of a difference,” Burman said.

Although he is young, Burman has racked up significant civic experience in Marvin. He has served on the Marvin planning board, annexation study group and bike lane study group, the Weddington Chase landscape committee and the library association of Waxhaw, just to name a few.

“Some people were concerned about my age,” Burman said, but apparently not concerned enough. Critics also argued the Burman, who lives in his parents’ home, should not be entrusted with tax dollars because he doesn’t pay local property taxes.

Burman said he took some inspiration from N.C. Rep. Justin Burr, R-Stanly, who was elected to the Statehouse when he was only 23 years old.

Incumbent Mayor John Ciaramella won the mayoral race by only six votes over Joseph Barbara. Neither candidate could be reached for comment.

Burman called it “unsettling” for a race to be so close. “It just goes to show how close these elections can be,” he said.