With nearly all the votes tallied in Santa Barbara County, 3rd District supervisor candidate Doreen Farr maintains a narrow lead of 593 votes over opponent Steve Pappas, with a few thousand ballots still to be counted.

According to the county elections office — which released updated election results Friday — Farr has received 50.78 percent of the vote with 16,475 votes, compared to Pappas’ 15,882 votes, or 48.95 percent. However, the final results of the election will not be determined until later this week when the last of the provisional and absentee ballots are tallied.

In the race for 3rd District supervisor, Pappas continues to wait for the final 10,500 provisional and absentee ballots to be counted — roughly 2,000 to 3,000 of which are thought to stem from the 3rd district – before conceding the seat to Farr.

“We’re certainly within striking distance — anything can happen,” Pappas said. “We’ll just have to see what happens and let it unfold.”

Farr said the close results of the election show the diversity that exists across the 3rd District, which she hopes to unite as supervisor.

“I think that it shows that I got votes from all parts of the district, which is what I had hoped to do,” Farr said. “But it also means that I certainly will need to continue to do that outreach and break the barriers between the northern and southern parts of the county.”

However, Pappas said it is still too early to give up, and believes the remaining ballots could tip the balance of the race in his favor.

“We’re awfully excited about the direction it’s going,” Pappas said. “We’re cautiously optimistic.”

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