Challenger Jacob Naven was leading incumbent Gary Singh by 741 votes in the early count of ballots cast in the Manteca mayor’s race.

In the 12:24 a.m. update today issued by the San Joaquin Registrar of Voters, Naven had 52.35 percent (8,240) of the vote counted and Singh 47.65 percent (7,499).

The count is expected to take several days to complete due to mail-in ballots that still need to be received that were postmarked as of Tuesday as well as those in hand already. All of those ballots will need to be verified against signatures of registered voters.

In other Manteca races:

*Incumbent Dave Breitenbucher was leading in the District 3 council race with 1,853 votes (71.24%) compared to Lei Ann Vareltta Larson with 748 votes (28.76%).

*Incumbent Mike Morowit had 2,563 votes (56%) in the District 4 council race while Dani Bettencourt had 1,383 (30.2 percent) and Rogger Gutierrez 631 (13.79%).

*Challenger Barry Keith was leading incumbent Stephen Schluer in the Trustee 6 race for the Manteca Unified School District board 1,872 to 1,568 (54.42% to 45.58%).

*Challenger Veronica Salazar was leading incumbent Marie Freitas 1,671 to 1,042 (49.13% to 30.64%) for the MUSD Trustee 4 seat while Rupinder Singh Jagpal had 688 votes or 20.23%.

In Ripon, City Council incumbents Michael Restuccia and Dean Uecker were leading in the race for two available seats with 2,119 and 1,765 votes respectively while challenger Frank Madrigal had 1,182 votes.

Lathrop Mayor Paul Akinjo was leading challenger Minnie “Cotton” Diallo 2,594 to 1,701 votes.

In the Lathrop City Council race Shelita Jefferson had 2,003 votes, Leandro Vicuna 1,766, Steve Dresser 1,722, and Daniel MacNeilage 1,157. The top two vote getters will be seated.

Mike Sonke was leading incumbent Glenn Spyksma 2,434 to 1,996 in the Division 2 South San Joaquin Irrigation District race.

The next update on the count is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Thursday.