The City of Santa Clarita has released new information on Tuesdays City Council election.

Voter turnout numbers are in, and 16.1 percent of our city’s registered voters came out for the election, casting a total of 14,340 ballots.

That number does not include the 641 provisional and vote by mail ballots, which were turned in prior Tuesday night and still need to be counted.

On each ballot, regular and provisional, voters are allowed to vote for up to three candidates, producing a larger number of votes then ballots.

For more information on the voter breakdown click here.

The question of who has won the third seat on the council still remains unanswered.  At the end of Wednesday night just 69 votes separated incumbent Frank Ferry and challenger David Gauny.

Currently there are still 641 ballots that remain uncounted, according to City Staff.

This number has the potential to drop as the City Clerk verifies the ballots.  The process requires checking signatures and examining records to prevent voters from voting twice, non-resident voting and voter fraud.

These remaining ballots and votes will be the deciding factor in determining who wins the third City Council seat, but the final numbers aren’t expected to be tallied until next week.

According to city staff all remaining the ballots are being kept in a locked cabinet inside a locked office.

In the event of a recount request, the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office has guidelines for how the recount should be handled.

Those guidelines require that the recount request be made within five calendar days of the close of the official canvas, the votes must be manually recounted under the supervision of the elections official by recount boards, and every vote be recounted.

A recount can be requested by any voter, but whoever files the request must pay for the cost of the recount upfront.  That cost, starting at more than $4,000 per day, pays for the manual recount by the board, and the amount increases depending on how many boards are needed and how quickly the filer wants the count to take place.  Money is only returned to if the recount produces a different election outcome.

For a more comprehensive list of voter action in a recount click here.