Ari Parker, who on late Tuesday led by just one vote, has slightly built on her lead over Nancy Bilicich in the race for the District 7 seat on the Watsonville City Council.
Parker, who is currently serving as Watsonville’s mayor in the last year of her first term, now has a 33-vote lead on Bilicich, the former Watsonville city council member who last held elected office in 2018, according to the Santa Cruz County Elections Department.
In total, 1,289 votes have been counted for that race and Parker has tallied 50.68% of them.
The Elections Department said that an additional 23,744 ballots were added to the results reported early Wednesday. Overall, 61,622 votes have been counted, which amounts to around 36.9% of the county’s 166,837 registered voters.
Another round of updates is expected Monday evening.
Parker is a teacher at Bradley Elementary School.
Bilicich serves as the director of Watsonville/Aptos/Santa Cruz Adult Education.
The District 7 seat was the lone Watsonville City Council seat of four up for grabs that saw more than one candidate step forward. Casey Clark (District 5), Maria Orozco (District 3) and Kristal Salcido (District 4) all ran unopposed and will assume office next month.
