Jean Rasch is still clinging to a razor-thin lead over Eric Palmer in the race for the District 3 seat on the Monterey City Council according to the latest results released by the Monterey County Election Department Friday afternoon.

Rasch has a 12-vote lead over Palmer with 1,998 votes counted according to Election Department. Votes, including vote by mail and provisional ballots, are still being counted, with results expected to be certified by Dec. 5.

The deadline for counties to receive vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day is Tuesday. According to a Wednesday press release issued by the Election Department, there were still 56,300 votes to be counted in the county.

Another tight race was for the third seat on the Pacific Grove City Council, where Tina Rau holds a 40-vote lead over incumbent Luke Colletti. Measure CC, which would ban the use of all fireworks in Seaside, is leading but only by 176 of the 7,274 votes that have been counted. Seaside currently allows fireworks with the “safe and sane” label.

The Election Department reported a 49% turnout among 214,883 registered voters.

The most popular way to vote was by mail, something nearly 100,000 people took advantage of. In contrast, a little under 10,000 voted at the polling place according to Friday’s report.