SALT LAKE CITY — There are 4,996 uncounted ballots that will go toward deciding who the next mayor is.
Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said Thursday that those include mail-in ballots that were hand-delivered to polling places on Election Day, as well as provisional ballots. They will be verified and then counted, she said.
The results will not be known until November 17, when the election results are canvassed (state law forbids the release of additional information). As of Tuesday, Jackie Biskupski maintained a five-point lead over incumbent Mayor Ralph Becker, having 52-percent of the vote to his 47-percent.
The odds of him defeating her are slim: Becker would need about 65 percent of the remaining votes to beat Biskupski. On Thursday, he was appearing with Vice-President Joe Biden at the National League of Cities meeting in Nashville.
The Salt Lake City Recorder said voter turnout was significant. There were 33,717 ballots cast in Salt Lake City races. That represents a 46.8-percent voter turnout, City Recorder Cindi Mansell said.
By comparison, the 2011 race had only 23-percent voter turnout.
