By Perry Smith & Tyler Wainfeld Signal Staff Writers The latest update on the voting tally released Thursday evening by Los Angeles County didn’t clarify much speculation about the outcome for most of the Santa Clarita Valley’s candidates, with several races tightening, including for the 27th Congressional District.  After leading by 0.1% on Election Night, Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, had more than 4,000 votes between him and challenger Democrat George Whitesides, according to the Secretary of State’s website.  However, the latest numbers Thursday night from Los Angeles County, which updates a little bit faster than the state, indicated Garcia’s lead shrank to about 2,200 votes — 120,844 to 117,604, or 50.68% to 49.32%.  The latest updates from the Secretary of State’s website includes 187,254 ballots processed since Election Night, which is about 100,000 more since Wednesdy’s update. This update includes ballots returned to the U.S. Postal Service, ballot drop boxes and vote centers on Election Day.  For county races, the total number of ballots processed is 2,883,736 as of Thursday night, which is 50.27% of registered voters, according to the LA County Registrar-Recorder’s Office.   State Senate   In the race for the state Senate 23rd district, which takes up most of the SCV, Suzette Martinez Valladares, a Republican, maintained the advantage she had after Wednesday’s update, leading Kipp Mueller, a Democrat, 53.6% to 46.4% after Thursday’s counts were released. The vote tally was 145,076 to 125,797 as of 4:35 p.m., according to the Secretary of State’s website.  Assembly   The lead grew for Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, over Republican challenger Patrick Gipson with Thursday’s release.  Schiavo led 93,112 to 88,675, or 52.2% to 48.8% for the district that includes the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys.  Santa Clarita City Council   In the first ever actual race for a district seat in Santa Clarita, Patsy Ayala increased the 37-vote lead she had after Wednesday night to a 93-vote margin, 3,469 to 3,376, over Tim Burkhart.   Both candidates were favored as members of the city’s Planning Commission, although Bryce Jepsen, who ran a bit of an outsider’s campaign considering his opposition, closed the margin between him and Burkhart in the latest update. Jepsen remained in third but closed the 280-vote gap between him and Burkhart by 13 votes Thursday.  School board races  There was no change in who leads the races for the SCV’s school board seats after Thursday’s update.  The tightest race looks to be between Scott Schauer and Edel Alonso for the seat representing Trustee Area No. 2 on the Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees, which oversees College of the Canyons. Schauer’s lead is now 367 votes, 27 more than what he led by on Wednesday.  Schauer is on a slate looking to unseat the two incumbents, Alonso, the current board president, and Jerry Danielsen, and their fellow candidates, Michelle Kampbell and Andrew Taban.  The rest of the candidates on Schauer’s slate — Fred Arnold, Darlene Trevino and Sharlene Johnson — have seen their leads hold.  For the two seats on the ballot for the William S. Hart Union High School District governing board, incumbent Erin Wilson’s substantial lead over challenger Eric Anderson has sustained as she has about 5,500 more votes in the race to represent Trustee Area No. 4.  Challenger Aakash Ahuja also looks like the favorite to win the race for Trustee Area No. 1, leading challenger Gloria Mercado-Fortine by about 1,300 votes. Incumbent Linda Storli is in third and conceded the race during Wednesday’s governing board meeting.  Katherine Cooper has a commanding lead of nearly 1,300 votes over challenger Mark White for the race to represent Trustee Area No. 3 on the Saugus Union School District governing board.  Claiming victory, she sent the following statement to The Signal: “I’m thrilled to be able to serve the students of our district for another four years.”  Two other races that look to be decided are for seats on the Newhall School District and Castaic Union School District governing board.  Sue Solomon, current president of the Newhall district governing board, has nearly 1,600 more votes than challenger Mayra Cuellar in the race to represent Trustee Area No. 5. Erik Richardson has roughly 350 more votes than Steve Sansone in the race to represent Trustee Area A on the Castaic governing board.  Both candidates of the latter race are new after incumbent Janene Maxon did not seek reelection.  The post Races remain close for SCV candidates  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.