Candidates in Two Tight Races Sweat It Out : Election: Victory in city council contests in Newport Beach and Santa Ana hinge on the tally Wednesday of absentee ballots. In one cliffhanger, the leader is ahead by only 26 votes.

A week after the election, some city council races remain nail-biters as the Orange County registrar of voters tallies about 48,000 absentee ballots.

By Wednesday, new results could flop a 26-vote lead in Newport Beach or turn a 150-vote Santa Ana victory on its head.

The weeklong uncertainty has proved emotionally trying for the candidates.

“I want to hear the fat lady sing,” said Alberta Christy, who has made two previous failed bids for Santa Ana City Council and is leading her opponent by 150 votes. “I’ve been praying.”

Christy, who was endorsed by the city’s powerful police and fire associations, as well as the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, had trailed planning commissioner and part-time probation officer Tony Espinoza for much of election night.

In fact, she went home at about 1:30 a.m. several hundred votes behind Espinoza and stayed awake all night praying, oblivious to the fact that she had crept to the lead until her phone rang at 5:45 a.m. and the voice on the other end addressed her as “councilwoman.”

Espinoza, for his part, said he would be thrilled if the vote swung in his favor, but he phoned Christy last Thursday to congratulate her. He said he is prepared for the results to hold their present pattern.

“As for now, I feel she won the race. I felt this way that morning, and I’ve geared everything that I’ve felt since then to that,” Espinoza said. “I don’t think it’s a real solid lead, but more or less I’m just preparing myself. I didn’t want to be in suspense. I just figured the votes are cast. If anything changes, that will be great, but I just don’t see it happening.”

Christy so far has 14,535 votes to Espinoza’s 14,385.

According to Deputy City Clerk William Navajo, there could be as many as 3,000 Santa Ana absentee ballots still to be counted, although far fewer would pertain to the Christy-Espinoza ward.

Countywide, about 48,000 absentee ballots remain to be counted, Assistant Registrar Don Taylor said. Taylor had no city breakdowns, but said all anxiety would be laid to rest by Wednesday.

“We’ll run (the absentee ballots) on Wednesday. Then, we’ll know how many and we’ll know who won,” he said.

A Newport Beach council race proved even more nerve-racking for the candidate who earned a 26-point lead and characterizes his life since then as “sleepless.”

Ron Winship received 10,804 votes to Thomas C. Edwards’ 10,778.

“When it’s that iffy there’s not much you can do about it,” Winship said. “However, the tension still remains. All you can do is stay tense and just think good thoughts.”

Edwards could not be reached for comment Monday.

Winship recalled his roller-coaster ride on election night. First he was down 250 votes, then up by 16. Then he crawled to an 88-point lead and slipped back down to his current 26-vote margin.

“People I know were calling from all over the country to say, ‘Congratulations,’ ” he said. “Others called and said they were sorry I lost.”

“My wife said it so perfectly,” Winship said. “She said, ‘You told me this was going to be over on Nov. 8.’ And of course, it’s just beginning. We were so into the campaigning trail, every time we see someone, we still think should we give them a pamphlet or a pen or a POG. We’re still on automatic pilot.”