Outstanding ballots cloud South Tucson council results

With thousands of votes uncounted, it was too early Tuesday night for any of the South Tucson City Council candidates to declare victory.

A quirk in the “pueblo within a city” allows any candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary to take a seat on the council, skipping the need to hold another election in November.

As of late Tuesday night, it was unclear how many of the ballots that hadn’t been counted are from the square-mile city, surrounded on all sides by the much larger city of Tucson.

Current Mayor Robert “Bob” Teso, resident Robert S. Romero and political newcomer Akanni “Oye” Oyegbola were ahead in early results.

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Former Councilmen Rufino Cantu Jr. and Robert Larribas trailed in those early results.

In March, South Tucson voters recalled Cantu and Larribas, as well as Mayor Ildefonso Green and councilman Carlos Romo, amid complaints that the council backed deep cuts in the fire department in an attempt to balance the budget.

In that election, slightly more than 300 of the city’s 1,983 eligible residents cast ballots.