Challenger Jacob Naven has expanded his lead over Manteca Mayor Gary Singh by 876 votes in the ongoing count from Tuesday’s election.

“It’s looking hopeful,” Naven said Wednesday, saying he was waiting for the next scheduled count update at 5 p.m. before making any announcement regarding the outcome.

In the latest update of the count at 1:11 a.m. Wednesday, Naven had 8,560 votes to Singh’s 7,684 for a 52.7 percent to a 47.3 percent lead.

Typically, the Tuesday night and early morning counts are of ballots cast in person and mail-in ballots received in advance of the final weekend of October that have been processed and verified against the signatures of registered voters.

The San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters has a number of mail-in ballots to process. It also must count ballots postmarked as of Election Day and received within five days.

As of 1:11 a.m. Wednesday, 121,252 ballots had been counted out of 415,611 registered voters.
The Registrar of Voters before the election projected a turnout between 40 and 60 percent of eligible voters.

That range covers anywhere from 160,000 to 240,000 ballots overall being cast.

There is also no way of knowing how many ballots cast by City of Manteca voters by mail have yet to be counted.

Election observers on both sides believe of Naven’s lead increases or even stays relatively the same after today’s update Manteca will have a new mayor.

If the count cuts substantially into Naven’s lead there could still be a chance Singh might eventually prevail.

Naven spent election night at home with his family while Singh hosted an election night watch at Tato’s Mexican Restaurant for his supporters.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com