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Nascimento's lead widens in City Council District 4 race
Steven Nascimento Turlock
Steven Nascimento remains in the lead for the Turlock City Council District 4 seat, with the latest results show him 16 votes ahead of candidate Amy Bublak. - photo by Photo Contributed

Turlock City Council member Steven Nascimento is now 16 votes ahead of fellow council member and District 4 candidate Amy Bublak, according to updated election results reported by the Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters.

On election night Nascimento had a 36-vote lead over Bublak, but then a week later that number dropped to four with thousands of vote by mail and provisional ballots left to count.

On Tuesday, the Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters released an election results update after processing additional 6,366 vote by mail, miscellaneous and provisional ballots. The unofficial results now show Nascimento leading with 2,627 votes to Bublak's 2,611 votes.

A total of 5,527 votes have been counted in the Turlock City Council District 4 race, with 279 votes cast for candidate Donald Babadalir and an additional 10 votes going to a write-in candidate.

The two incumbent city council members ran aggressive campaigns — and spent significant amounts of money (over $30,000 each) in an attempt to secure the District 4 seat.

"We had great support from the community and a lot of supporters walking the district," said Nascimento on Election Day about the early results. "The campaign resonated with the voters and it shows in the results."

Tuesday's results are not final, as in-depth examination of thousands of remaining provisionally voted ballots will continue through this week.  California counties have up to 30 days to complete the count for local elections, which is Dec. 8.

The Turlock City Council is expected to receive the official election results at its Dec. 13 meeting, at which time Turlock's first ever district representatives will be sworn in.

Gil Esquer won the District 2 race, with a significant lead over Jaime Franco. As of Tuesday, Esquer had 2,097 votes to Franco's 1,168.

No matter the final results of the election, Franco considered his campaign a success as it brought a record number of voters to the polls from Turlock's westside. A total of 3,284 votes were cast in the District 2 race as of Tuesday.