With the latest election tally released Friday evening, Aug. 5, Allen Skillicorn edged ahead of Cindy Couture in a tight race for the third and final seat on the Fountain Hills Town Council.

Skillicorn had a very slim 19-vote edge over Couture, 4,756 to 4,737. Couture had lead the race since the initial results were released on Tuesday.

In a release Friday evening Maricopa County election officials reported having 6,500 ballots remaining to process and tabulate with 1,224 valid provisional ballots to be counted. There are also 7,500 “uncured” ballots in which signatures need further review. Voters have until Tuesday, Aug. 9, at 5 p.m. to have the ballots “cured” or verified by providing sufficient identification. These are county-wide numbers with no indication as to what remains to be counted for Fountain Hills.

Voters can track the status of their early ballot by visiting beballotready.vote.

As of the end of the day Friday Mayor Ginny Dickey still had a lead over former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Dickey has 5,368 votes to Arpaio’s 5,128.

Brenda Kalivianakis (5,871) and Hannah Toth (5,732) both appear to have won seats on the council.

There were 10,705 ballots cast in the Fountain Hills council election or nearly 60% of the registered voters.