Marty Small declared an "unofficial" victory in the Democratic primary for Atlantic City's mayor Wednesday evening.
In the most recent totals, Small had almost 62 percent of the vote.
"I’m prepared to claim victory, although it's unofficial," he said with at least 25 percent of the votes still left to count.
As the main counting neared completion Thursday, his lead increased.
The most recent numbers had Small with 2,537 votes, or more than 64 percent of the tally.
Challenger Pamela Thomas-Fields, who had the backing of the city's Democratic Party, has 1,216, or just less than 31 percent of the vote.
The city's Democratic Party also backed LaToya Dunston, who was picked to fill Small's unexpired Second Ward seat. Teh most recent count has her leading 428 to 220 over Delmar Hamilton, who had Small's backing.
The all mail-in voting has caused a backup in getting out the full numbers.
There were about 4,600 ballots from Atlantic City voters at the Atlantic County Board of Elections, Chair Lynn Caterson said.
But that doesn't include the ballots that can be accepted up until July 14, as long as they were postmarked by 8:30 p.m. July 7.
There also were thousands of provisional ballots cast by those who went to polling places on Tuesday. It was not clear how many of those were from Atlantic City, Caterson said.
Note: This story originally ran July 8. It has been updated to include the most recent numbers.
NOTE: This story originally ran primary night, July 7. It has been updated to include Marty Small's declaration and the latest vote totals.
