11:21 p.m. UPDATE

Angelique Ashby's supporters gather around the wide screen television to anxiously watch the results of tonight's election.

With a lead of more than 10% on her closest competitor, incumbent Tretheway, Ashby supporters are anticipating the coming numbers.

"We think we know the answer," volunteer Celia Hernandez said. "We just need it official!"

Cheers, laughter and applause resonate throughout the police stationassociation, and tensions build as the night wears on, the final count looming closer and closer.

"We're all excited," canvas coordinator Greg Pruden said. "Really looking forward to getting the final returns in and seeing what the final result is. We're really pleased with our efforts so far."

--Maxwell McKee

11:15 p.m. UPDATE

Earlier in the evening, an overwhelming atmosphere of food, screaming kids, and bright lights pervaded El Michoacano 2, a Mexican restaurant serving as Leticia Hilbert's election party venue. A bittersweet vibe was apparent on Hilbert's face as she discovered early on she was behind in votes.

Hilbert said the day was exhausting. She spent the day handing out fliers and speaking with voters. Nevertheless, she was supported by dozens of family and friends in the restaurant.

"Family - it's the nucleus of society," said Hilbert, sitting next to her brother. "If it is broken, our society is dysfunctional."

She also commented on her opponents in the election. "They were all polite and I have nothing but nice things to say about them," she said.

-Jonathan Mendick

10:58 p.m. UPDATE

Sacramento County’s election website appears to be malfunctioning.

At times, the website reports that 36 precincts in the District 1 race have been counted. But at other times, it reports that 70 of 70 precincts have been counted.

The confusion also affected the District 3 race. Shortly before 11 p.m., City Councilman Steve Cohn said he was just as confused as anyone about what was going on with election returns Tuesday night.

"We really have not been able to get any information," he said. "They still haven't changed the overall total from two hours ago. So it's very strange.

"It seems the entire voter registrar is on furlough tonight," he said.

-- Suzanne Hurt and Kathleen Haley

10:40 p.m. UPDATE

A large crowd is already celebrating at candidate Ryan Chin's party at the Happy Corner Restaurant on Freeport Boulevard. The underdog candidate appears poised to take incumbent Robbie Waters' City Council seat in District 7.

Even in early returns, Waters was in a distant third place behind Chin and Darrell Fong. His party at Giovanni's Pizza in the South Land Park area was breaking up before 10 p.m. in what was a melancholy scene, with friends visibly upset.

Chin's campaign manager Devin Lavelle says, "Our name is at the top of the list, that makes us happy." Chin says he feels good, excited and ready for his potential future with the city council.

--Erin Haight

10:23 p.m. UPDATE

The projection screen glowed in Coffee Garden on Franklin Boulevard as District 5 candidate Patrick Kennedy looked on with deep concentration. The City Council poll results were starting to trickle in Tuesday night.

“Right now, we have zero percent of precincts. It’s just way too early.”

Kennedy did not seem to mind having four candidates to run against.

“I ran my campaign as I would running against one other person or 16,” he said.

-Agnus Farrant

9:44 p.m. UPDATE

The crowd was somber at Sofia Restaurant in downtown Sacramento, where City Councilman Ray Tretheway was watching election returns.

About 40 Tretheway supporters turned out for the event.

Tretheway appeared positive about the outcome of the race, despite the fact that early returns show challenger Angelique Ashby leading in the polls.

“I’m doing great,” he smiled. “It’s totally early — but we did a heck of a campaign. We think we have the votes out there.”

Tretheway said that there’s still a long way to go before all the regular and absentee ballots would be counted.

--Suzanne Hurt

9:30 p.m. UPDATE

Food is set out on tables - chips and salsa, sandwich wraps, pretzels and beer. Pangaea Cafe on Franklin Boulevard is bustling, with more than 30 people.

Schenirer got to the party after 8 p.m. because he was attending his son's Senior Award Ceremony at McClatchy High School. A group of his son's high school friends are in attendance, as is Schenirer's mother-in-law. Schenirer is the life of the party, moving from table to table, receiving congratulations for the current election results.

"So far, so good," he says.

He adds that he plans to stay at the cafe until 10:30 p.m.

--Jonathan Mendick

9:14 p.m. UPDATE

Sacramento County Supervisor Candidate Phil Serna is the frontrunner in the District 1 race with 6,088 votes. Keith Weber follows Serna with 2,853 votes.

District 1 includes Sacramento central city.

--Kathleen Haley

9:03 p.m. UPDATE

Over at Clubhouse 56 in East Sacramento, Cohn’s major challenger, realtor Chris Little, watched as county election results were first projected on a wall-sized screen. Little was the second highest vote-getter with 1,295 votes with nearly 40 percent of the vote.

With only 3,271 ballots counted in the race, it is still too early to know how the race will turn out, he said.

“It’s a good showing,” he said.

--Suzanne Hurt

8:59 p.m. UPDATE

Education policy consultant Jay Schenirer is leading the District 5 City Council race with 36 precincts reporting.

Schenirer has 822 votes, while attorney Patrick Kennedy has 571 votes.

Schenirer was endorsed by Mayor Kevin Johnson.

--Kathleen Haley

8:48 p.m. UPDATE

Angelique Ashby’s supporters came together tonight at the police stationSacramento Police Officers Association on Bercut Drive to support the District 1 candidate.

Volunteers spent today working on last-minute campaigning, including making phone calls and visiting polling spots and local businesses.

A new tactic used by the 35-year-old to get the word out was her use of Facebook. She asked her supporters to change their profile pictures to those of Ashby paraphernalia, and has that manner of support from more than 100 people.

“I made a decision at the beginning of the campaign to use social media,” Ashby said. “I think it’s powerful.”

Many volunteers and friends of the campaign put in extra hours today.

Unfortunately, voter turnout doesn’t seem to be very good this year.

“It’s looking pretty skinny,“ volunteer Jesus Arredondo said. “Low voter turnout is holding pretty true. Votes were coming in very, very slow this morning. We’ll see if there’s a mad rush here before the end of the polls.”

As the polls inch toward closing, Ashby says she’s more excited than nervous.

“There’s no reason to be nervous,” she said. “We’ve done everything we can. We’ve left no stone unturned. Looking back at a year’s worth of campaigning I can honestly say I feel very good about the effort of my team and my community to give us the best possible chance tonight.”

--Maxwell McKee

8:25 p.m. UPDATE

Incumbent City Councilman Robbie Waters is trailing two challengers in the District 7 City Council race. Ryan Chin is leading with 1,088 votes and 41 precincts reporting.

Darrell Fong follows Chin with 987 votes.

Waters has 728 votes.

--Kathleen Haley

8:20 p.m. UPDATE

Neighborhood activist Angelique Ashby is ahead in the contentious District 1 City Council race. At this point, Ashby has 1,862 votes, while incumbent City Councilman Ray Tretheway has 1,493 votes.

Ashby was endorsed by Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Guttierrez trails with 246 votes.

--Kathleen Haley

8:05 p.m. UPDATE

District 3 candidate Jeff Rainforth said his campaign for City Council went "a lot better" than his previous runs for the U.S. Congress and California governor — because the race was local.

That meant much less ground to cover and a simpler, less expensive way of campaigning, he said.

"We learned a lot about the process of local politics," he said. "Face time with neighbors is important. This is a lot of signs and getting the vote out."

Rainforth said he slept in Tuesday after staying out until 3 a.m. putting out lawn signs before the election.

"It's a lot of work," said Rainforth, who drove up in his campaign Jeep to vote at Washington Elementary School at 7 p.m. "And it was mostly just me."

--Suzanne Hurt

7:49 p.m. UPDATE

Early Tuesday evening, District 3 candidate Shawn Eldredge welcomed family and friends to his Midtown home, where they will watch election results once polls close at 8 p.m.

Wearing a T-shirt that said, "Say no to business as usual," Eldredge said he wanted to throw an appreciation party for everyone who supported him. But he thought his chances of winning weren't high.

"I'm not going to win," he said. "Steve's (Cohn) most likely going to win. Or if not, I'm likely going to be beaten by a sign campaign."

One of his opponents, East Sacramento realtor Chris Little, distributed at least 700 lawn signs, said Eldredge, who added that he put out a little more than 200 — but only "for people who asked."

His mother, Marsha Tipton, was one of the first to arrive in support. She said she reminded coworkers to vote, but saw few voting when she cast her ballot.

"I'm very proud of him," she said.

Eldredge's 20-year-old daughter, Falina, graduated from college in Germany Friday. She made it home Monday night — just in time to show her support for her dad and vote Tuesday evening.

--Suzanne Hurt

7:36 p.m. UPDATE

Sacramento Press Staff Reporter Jonathan Mendick talked with District 5 City Council candidate Jay Schenirer.

Mendick: What do you think about getting the mayor's endorsement, along with Ashby, Cohn and Waters?

Schenirer: My feeling is he cares deeply about Sacramento and he's very committed to being successful. I want him to be successful; if he is, the city is going to be successful. If I'm lucky enough to be elected, I'm looking forward to working with him and others on the council. While people might disagree on the strategy of how to do it, we ultimately want the same thing. Our bosses are the people in the city of Sacramento, and what they're telling us is we need to do a better job working together.

Mendick: What is significant about this year's City Council election and why?

Schenirer: I think what we're going to need to do is get a council that can work together, because for a long time people haven't trusted federal or state government. I (also) haven't seen a lot of trust in city government. We really have to figure out how to work together and regain the trust of the neighborhoods and the city.

--Jonathan Mendick

7:01 p.m. UPDATE

Sacramento Press community contributor Erin Haight scoped out the District 7 scene this afternoon.

David Plag, from incumbent Councilman Robbie Waters' campaign, said early statistics are showing a large Republican turnout.

Darrell Fong said in a text message that he was doing well and had no complaints this afternoon.

--Erin Haight

6:18 p.m. UPDATE

Sacramento Press staff reporter Jonathan Mendick talked to District 5 City Council candidate Henry Harry around 5 p.m.

Harry said some of his campaign signs were stolen. “We’ve made a pretty good effort, our only issue is that we had some campaign signs stolen,” Harry said. “Last night they went to some of our key locations and took some of our signs down.”

Mendick also asked Harry what it was like to run against four other candidates.

“Running against those guys and the lady was interesting and an eye opener,” Harry said. “Two things: Everyone of those is running a good campaign. No one took any cheap shots as far as I saw. You have 20 neighborhoods here, with a diversity of people. Whoever takes that seat is going to have to do a lot of work.”

5:50 p.m. UPDATE

Signs for polling places, such as this one on McKinley Boulevard, sprang up all over the city Tuesday.

Voters began streaming into the McKinley Library polling place after 3 p.m. — the start of the busiest time of day for in-person voting, which builds as people get off work. By 4:45 p.m., 116 people had voted and another six were in the process of voting.

This primary is proving to be more difficult for polling place workers, who must determine which ballot out of nine possible ballots each voter needs. There are nine ways people can vote in the 2010 primary election, said a worker named Dorothy, who's volunteered in elections for at least eight years.

Sacramento Police officers paid a visit to the polling place at McKinley Library after a transient caused a disturbance there, according to the officers.

--Suzanne Hurt

5:40 p.m. UPDATE

Sacramento Press intern Agnus Farrant chatted with District 5 City Council candidate Terrence Johnson Tuesday afternoon.

Farrant asked Johnson: What are the biggest issues in the campaign?

"In the campaign, I felt a little underfunded,” Johnson said. “But that was replaced with increased activity and increased volunteerism. So the limits of some of the campaign resources, we doubled down on our actual feet on the ground, we did person-to-person type campaigning. We walked and walked, hit every single precinct. Funding was the biggest issue.”

Johnson also commented on community issues. “The budget, safety, security and education resonated throughout districts as issues,” he said. “Different priorities for each neighborhood, but the same issues."

5:20 p.m. UPDATE

Staff reporter Suzanne Hurt caught up with City Councilman Steve Cohn today.

Cohn, who's being challenged for the District 3 council seat, cycled through his precincts late Tuesday afternoon.

"Today, we're working to get out the vote," said Cohn, who rode a red single-speed cruiser to knock on doors and pass out literature at the homes of people who hadn't yet voted.

About 5 campaign workers volunteering for Cohn visited polling places Tuesday to find out who's already voted and who might need a reminder call. Another four or five hit the phones to let people know there was still time to vote.

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3:46 p.m. UPDATE

City Council District 5 candidates Jay Schenirer and Patrick Kennedy are working the phones today.

District 5 neighborhoods include Colonial Heights, Curtis Park and Oak Park.

Sacramento Press reporter Jonathan Mendick talked to sources with the candidates' campaigns earlier today.

“Today I’m phoning,” Schenirer said. “I have walked the district already twice, in some places three or four times.”

Patrick Kennedy was making phone calls and checking precincts earlier Tuesday, said Judy Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy’s wife.