With vote counting continuing, a tight race for a county supervisor's seat on the Central Coast remains too close to call.
In an update released Thursday afternoon, Richardo Valencia continues to hold a slim lead over Maribel Aguilera for Santa Barbara County’s Fifth District Supervisorial seat.
Valencia has 51.57% of the vote to Aguilera’s 47.90%. Valencia has a 282-vote lead.
He is a teacher, and Santa Maria-Bonita School District board member. Aguilera is an attorney and a Santa Maria City Council member.
Both are seeking the seat representing Santa Maria and Guadalupe, which Steve Lavagnino is vacating after four terms in office.
The suspense will apparently continue into next week. Santa Barbara County Elections officials say they’ve counted 100,000 ballots, with an estimated 61,000 to go. They say the next update on the vote count will be next Tuesday.
