Despite solidifying his lead to 781 votes Sunday Ben Cantu is declining to declare that he is Manteca’s next mayor.

 “I would like to give Mayor DeBrum the opportunity to make a decision on the election,” Cantu said.

With 23,309 votes counted as of Sunday, Cantu led DeBrum 11,045 to 10,264. Going into the election there were 39,149 registered voters in Manteca. The votes counted so far reflect a record 59.5 percent turnout. Cantu has led consistently after the in-person votes were tabulated early on Nov. 7.

The turnout is likely to go higher as there are still mail-in and provisional ballots to count. The San Joaquin County Elections Department will not know where the remaining ballots cast are from until signatures have been verified and counted.

If Manteca’s turnout was 70 percent, there would have to be 4,091 ballots left to count, DeBrum would need to pull 24 of every 40 ballots counted to beat Cantu.

Cantu increased his lead from Friday’s count update by seven going from 764 to 781.

Both David Breitenbucher and Mike Morowit increased their leads Sunday for the two open council seats by two votes each compared to the Friday update.

Breitenbucher now has a 493 vote lead over Morowit while  Morowit leads Jose Nuno by 79.