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The winner will fill the seat last held by Praisner’s late wife, Councilwoman Marilyn Praisner, whose February death sparked the special election.

Donald Praisner, 75, a Calverton resident and retired CIA analyst, said that if victorious he was looking forward to serving on the council.

‘‘While I know all my colleagues [already], I’ve never really worked with them, so we need to sit down and see where we’re coming from,” he said. ‘‘I’m not going to rush in and make any changes of any kind, though. I’m there to learn.”

Fennel, 42, a Silver Spring resident and marketing analyst, complimented Praisner and said he was proud of the campaign he ran.

‘‘Don Praisner is a gentleman and a scholar and we are extremely proud about the campaign that we ran,” he said. ‘‘And I think we were very effective at putting our message out there.”

By the time polls closed Tuesday, the county Board of Elections had received 296 absentee ballots out of a total of about 500 issued, board spokeswoman Marjorie Roher said. Absentee ballots can still be received by 10 a.m. May 23, she said.

District 4, which includes parts of Burtonsville, Silver Spring, Cloverly, Colesville, Wheaton, Aspen Hill, Olney, Sandy Spring and Ashton, as well as the retirement communities of Leisure World and Riderwood Village, is slightly older, less affluent and more diverse than other parts of the county.

The winner of Tuesday’s election will be sworn in May 23, one day after the council is to adopt next year’s budget. Analysts have said the new councilman could be a crucial swing vote on the nine-member council on issues ranging from taxes to the pace of development.

‘‘Everybody’s watching here because there are so many 4-4 votes split in the council,” council spokesman Neil H. Greenberger said before the results came in Tuesday. ‘‘This election is very important.”

Praisner built his campaign on his wife’s legacy and on his support of slow-growth policies that he says will not overwhelm the county’s infrastructure.

As a result, Praisner won endorsements from several elected officials, including County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and four council members: Phillip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg, Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac, Marc Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park and Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At large) of North Bethesda.

Voters who cast a ballot for Praisner on Tuesday said his slow-growth stance and their familiarity with him and his wife contributed to their support.

‘‘We don’t need a change,” said Silver Spring resident Ed Wetzler. ‘‘As a community member, I really liked Marilyn Praisner and I know what she stood for.”

Wetzler said that he doesn’t like the Intercounty Connector and other major projects, and says he hopes that with a Praisner back on the council the county might see more controlled development.

‘‘I think we need slow growth,” he said. ‘‘We’ve got to take stock of what we’re trying to do and reassess where we are.”

Colesville resident Mort Fox and his wife, Esther, said they also voted for Praisner because they liked the work his wife did.

‘‘He was always sympathetic to what his wife did and they’re two of a kind, with a shared vision,” said Fox, 85.

In the shortened campaign season — the primary was April 15 — many observers said Praisner had an unbeatable edge because of his widespread name recognition throughout the district, which Marilyn Praisner represented for 17 years.

Fennel, the 2006 Republican nominee for the District 4 seat and director of the nonprofit group Citizens Against Government Waste, campaigned against increasing property taxes. He said several times that the county does not need a ‘‘lame-duck placeholder” on the council.

Supported by the limited-tax advocate Robin Ficker, Fennel tried to overcome a lack of name recognition by posting well-traveled roads in District 4 with campaign signs and making frequent appearances at community meetings.

In the campaign’s final days, Fennel began to criticize Praisner for not having attended more candidate forums. And last week, his campaign lambasted the county Board of Elections for sending out more than 100,000 corrected sample ballots in what his campaign said was an effort to increase turnout in Praisner’s favor. The first batch omitted the party designations of either candidate.

Fennel also suffered from a significant fundraising disadvantage, raising slightly more than $4,100 — $1,655 of which he donated to himself — compared to the more than $27,000 that Praisner raised.

In the April 15 Democratic primary, Praisner edged out school board President Nancy Navarro, with 44 percent of the vote to Navarro’s 39, even after the Navarro campaign raised more than $34,000 in just six weeks.

Navarro had the support of many labor organizations, and in the weeks after the primary, Praisner said he did not feel beholden to unions as a result.

Political pollster G. Keith Haller said because Praisner will not seek re-election, he won’t need to worry about reaching out to Democratic voters who did not support him in the primary.

‘‘It’s the opposite question. These groups should be reaching out to him,” said Haller, president of Potomac Inc. in Bethesda. ‘‘They’re the ones that have dug themselves in the hole. Don has all the political capital in the world. He’s not worried about his political fate tomorrow.”

Praisner was forced to leave the campaign trail for several days after being hospitalized April 2. The 75-year-old attributed the incident to stress, saying he felt fine after a few days later.

Drew Powell, executive director of Neighbors for a Better Montgomery and a former candidate for mayor of Rockville, said Praisner would do a good job following his wife’s legacy and working with the council.

‘‘He’s a team player,” Powell said. ‘‘He didn’t do this for money. He didn’t do this for power. He did this because he felt in his grief that it was the right thing to do, that it was the right thing to do for the county.”

Partial results Donald Praisner (D) 2,661 Mark D. Fennel (R) 1,336 With 26 out of 45 precincts reporting at 9:20 p.m.