Even though Manteca is in the final days of what is the most acrimonious campaign since the divisive 1983 recall election of three council members, early voting by ballot is not as robust so far compared to the June primary.

The San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters office has received mail in ballots from 17.2 percent of the 43,000 registered votes in the City of Manteca as of Tuesday. Seven days prior to election day in June, that number for Manteca was more than 20 percent.
Roughly the same percentage of both registered Democrats and Republicans have voted.

The elections office has received so far:

*3,000 votes cast by Manteca’s 15,000 registered Republicans.

*4,200 votes cast by Manteca’s 21,000 registered Democrats.

There have been 1,900 ballots that have reached the county election office for those in Manteca that are independents.

None of the ballots received will be tabulated until after the polls close Tuesday at 8 p.m.

Although local elections aren’t officially structured as partisan affairs, the San Joaquin County Republican Party apparatus has invested a lot of effort into pointing out incumbent Gary Singh is a Democrat and trying to paint him as a carbon copy of sorts of the national party.

The San Joaquin County Democratic Party has pushed back in the closing weeks noting Naven is not only Republican by labeling him as embracing MAGA politics and have gone as far as calling him “the MAGA choice” and listing $3,468.13 in donations Naven has made to Trump supporting politician action committees.

There is no record of Singh having contributed funds to similar PACs for national level candidates.

The decision to make the local races an extension of sorts of national politics could prove to be problematic for the Republicans.

Assuming the party-based campaign resonates with the majority of registered Democrats and Republicans in Manteca, the equal return of ballots so far may not move the needle in the direction they hope.

The math also may be dicey as well when it comes to turnout.

Roughly 35 percent of the county’s 410,058 registered voters cast ballots in June.

If that number is repeated and holds up in Manteca, that means there is likely roughly 9,000 other local voters yet to cast ballots.

And overall, less than 12 percent of the county’s registered voters that actually voted did so in person on Election Day.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com