OCEANSIDE -- It looks as if Oceanside has a new mayor and will soon need a new council member. With 100 percent of the precincts in Oceanside reporting, Councilman Jim Wood has a slim lead of 516 votes over incumbent Mayor Terry Johnson, or 39.24 percent to 38.07 percent, according to unofficial returns.

Councilman Rocky Chavez finished a distant third with 17.15 percent of the vote, and businessman Adrian Barbour was fourth with 5.54 percent.

Officials from the San Diego County registrar of voters office said Wednesday there are an estimated 200,000 absentee ballots and 50,000 provisional ballots countywide that still to be counted.

County Public Information Officer Louis Monteagudo said it's too early to know how many of those ballots are from Oceanside. He said the registrar will try to update the vote totals every morning, but didn't know when the final totals will be completed.

"Those ballots are still being processed," Monteagudo said.

If only 1 percent of the 250,000 ballots are for Oceanside, that could translate into 2,500 more votes to count in the mayoral race.

Even so, many people said Wednesday that Wood's lead is safe, pointing out that he won a large majority of the early absentee returns Tuesday night. After the first absentee returns Tuesday night, Wood had received 50 percent of the votes. Johnson had 30 percent.

Wood said Wednesday he's ecstatic about the race and that he believes "deep down" that he has won the race. He said he polled very strongly with absentee voters and that he doesn't believe Johnson can make up the difference in votes.

"I'm a little conservative (and) I want to wait," Wood said. "Certainly, I'm ecstatic if I've won."

Johnson did not return phone calls for comment.

Jack Orr, Johnson's campaign consultant, said that if the absentee and provisional votes closed the gap from 500 to just a handful of votes -- 5 or 10, for example -- that the mayor could conceivably call for a recount. But he said that scenario was unlikely.

"I don't expect (the outstanding votes) to change the outcome," Orr said.

If Wood is certified as the winner, the city would need to find someone else to fill the two years he still has left on his council term. After the new council members are sworn in Dec. 7, the council will need to appoint a new member or call for a special election within 30 days.

In the council race, incumbents Jack Feller and Esther Sanchez were elected by relatively safe margins, with candidate Shari Mackin running a strong third.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Feller won the first of the two available council seats with 23 percent of the votes. His 17,327 votes were more votes than either Wood (17,248) or Johnson (16,732) received in the mayoral race.

Sanchez ran second with 21.7 percent and 16,336 votes. Mackin was third with 19.5 percent and 14,686 votes.

Candidates C.C. Sanders and Vickie Prosser finished a distant fourth and fifth, with 13 percent and 10.1 percent, respectively. John Hoffman was next with 5.84 percent, then Ryan Keim with 3.5 percent and Michael Lucas with 3.3 percent.

Feller said he felt voters were satisfied with what he has accomplished in office, and Sanchez said she was very pleased and thanked her volunteers and the community for their help.

The new council appears to be split 2-2 philosophically, with Feller and Chavez on one side and Wood and Sanchez on the other, leading some to speculate that a special election to fill the fifth seat is inevitable. Others said Wednesday they hope the new council can appoint someone to the fifth seat to save the city the expense of a special election.

A special election can't take place by law until at least 114 days after the election is declared. City Clerk Barbara Wayne said last week that the March primary date falls inside of the 114-day requirement and that the likeliest date for a special election would be the first Tuesday in June. She said a special election could cost about $200,000.

Contact staff writer Rob O'Dell at (760) 901-4067 or rodell@nctimes.com.