Steve DeBrum — noting there are between 18,000 and 21,000 votes still left to count in San Joaquin County — still believes it is too soon to call the race for Manteca mayor.

“The vote count trend hasn’t been going the right way but there are still votes to count,” DeBrum said Monday.

Thirty more votes were counted from Manteca on Monday as Cantu increased his lead over DeBrum by eight votes from Sunday’s updated count to 789. Cantu is at 11,064 and DeBrum is at 10,725.

The biggest shift in terms of positions potentially flipping occurred in the battle for the second council seat. Although just 30 votes were counted Monday, Jose Nuno slashed his deficit with Mike Morowit by eight votes whittling Morowit’s margin to 67 votes, down from 79 on Sunday.

David Breitenbucher expanded his lead by one vote and now has a 494 vote margin separating him from Morowit.

With 21,339 votes counted as of Monday plus Manteca having 39,149 registered voters going into the election the votes counted so far reflect a record 54.5 percent turnout. Cantu has led consistently after the in-person votes were tabulated early on Nov. 7.

If Manteca happened to have a 60 percent turnout that would mean there might be 2,135 outstanding Manteca ballots among those 18,000 to 21,000 that have yet to have signatures verified and be counted.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabuleltin.com