Ben Cantu has expanded his lead over incumbent Mayor Steve DeBrum by one vote on Friday after 129 provisional ballots from Manteca were counted in the first update since the initial Election Day count.
Cantu now leads DeBrum by 127 votes or 6,579 to 6,452.
After the counting of absentee ballots that were received the Friday before Election Day that election workers were able to verify signatures and votes cast at polling places on Tuesday, San Joaquin County still had 91,700 provisional ballots to count or more than four times the number in the 2016 count. Those include mail-in ballots as well as those dropped off at polling places on Tuesday.
There is no way to know what community the mail-in ballots were cast until they are counted. If the outstanding ballots are in proportionate to population, there could by upwards of 9,000 plus of the 91,700 that weren’t counted after election night that could be from Manteca.
The next official semifinal update to the election returns is expected to post Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 5 p.m., Friday Nov. 16 at 5 p.m., then Monday, Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. and Wednesday, Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. The registrar has posted a goal to have all vote-by-mail ballots counted by Monday Nov. 26 and most provisional ballots counted by Wednesday, Nov. 28 – posting the results of each at 5 p.m. on those respective days. That means that some races — including possibly the Manteca’s mayor’s race — likely won’t be decided until after Thanksgiving.
The final update before the election results are certified in San Joaquin County is currently scheduled Monday, Dec. 3, at 5 p.m. The final official results will be posted no later than Dec. 6, when they are certified by the Registrar of Voters and forwarded on to the California Secretary of State.
Meanwhile retired fire captain David Breitenbucher is still leading after Friday’s count update for one of the two open council seats with 5,777 votes (27.76%). He gained 57 after the initial count and still holds the same exact percentage of the overall votes counted so far. Incumbent Mike Morowit is still in second with 5,548 votes (26.66%). He added 49 votes Friday but slipped 0.3 percent in terms of the number of votes counted. Planning commission member Jose Nuno was in third with 5,224 votes (25.11percent). He picked up 68 votes to improve his percentage by .07. PG&E worker Chris Silva was in fourth with 5,224 votes (20.47). He dropped 0.4 percent while adding 66 votes.
If there are indeed close to 9,000 votes to count in Manteca it could possibly change who is elected to the council.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
