Tracy Mayor Robert Rickman has taken the lead in the race to represent District 5 on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

In a release of counted ballots from the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters on Monday night Rickman pulled ahead of Rhodesia Ransom by 516 votes – taking a 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent lead as the registrar finishes counting a backlog of ballots from the predominantly mail-based election.

On election night Rickman trailed Ransom by almost 2,500 votes.

As of Friday, the county had an estimated 26,150 votes remaining to be counted – a combination of vote-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots, and ballots to be duplicated.

By the time the weekend passed, and the votes were posted on Monday evening, that backlog was down to 7,550 votes – leaving only provisional ballots and ballots to be duplicated.

According to the remaining estimate sheet, all mail-in ballots have been counted in San Joaquin County at this point.

Rickman ran a campaign that focused on addressing the rising cost of living, coming up with common sense solutions for homelessness, reducing traffic congestion, expanding economic development, and ensuring safe neighborhoods. A law enforcement officer by trade, Rickman courted controversy earlier this year when comments he made about sending Tracy’s homeless population to Stockton went viral.

The boundaries of the district, which encompasses all of Tracy but splits Manteca and Lathrop, became something that Ransom talked about in her campaign – advocating for full representation for communities in the South County like Lathrop and Manteca that she said would benefit from being made whole governing body.

Manteca south of Yosemite Avenue is in District 5 as is the River Islands portion of Lathrop.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.