By Jorge Casuso

November 9, 2020 -- The front runners in the race for four City Council seats cemented their leads after 4,389 more ballots were counted Monday.

Phil Brock expanded his first-place lead over incumbent Gleam Davis to more than 1,000 votes, while challenger Christine Parra closed within some 200 votes of a second-place finish.

Meanwhile, challenger Oscar de la Torre secured a seat on the seven-member Council by nearly doubling his lead over incumbent Terry O'Day to more than 1,100 votes.

Incumbents Ted Winterer and Ana Jara fell further behind with the LA County Registrar having counted a total of 54,639 Council ballots as of 4:15 p.m. Monday.

These include votes cast for incumbent Kristen McCowan, who has a record 31,281 votes in the uncontested race for a two-year seat.

A total of 895 Conditional Voter Registration/Provisional ballots will not be counted until Tuesday, said Santa Monica City Clerk Denise Anderson-Warren.

An estimated 879 Vote-by-Mail (VBM) ballots were still outstanding as of Monday, Anderson-Warren said.

"That is only an estimate, and does not include any VBM or uncured ballots that may come in the mail over the next three weeks," she said.

Monday's results all but guarantee that three incumbents will be ousted from the Council -- as many in one race as have been defeated in the past 26 years ("Santa Monica Voters Usher in New Era," November 6, 2020).

A record 21 candidates ran in the Council races this year.

The final vote count is expected to be certified by the County Registrar November 30, voting officials said.