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Steve Kozachik has unseated Nina Trasoff on the City Council, according to new vote totals.

Kozachik’s lead over Democratic incumbent Trasoff held steady at 1,675 votes after some 9,000 outstanding early ballots were processed Thursday.

When the race flipped near midnight on election day when the east side wards were counted, insiders knew the lead was near-insurmountable, especially since early ballots favored Kozachik anyway.

The Ward 3 nailbiter, meanwhile, is stuck at 246 ballots separating incumbent Democrat Karin Uhlich and Republican challenger Ben Buehler-Garcia. Still, Uhlich has never been out of the lead, so Democratic Party chairman Jeff Rogers declared a win for his candidate. Uhlich has said she will not make any comment until the count has been finalized.

It also is clear now that the city will not have an additional $21 million to work with, since voters refused to lift the spending cap under Proposition 400. Although the percentages remain close, at 49 percent to 51 percent, nearly 800 votes would be required to shift that race over. And with only about 3,000 ballots left to count, that’s all but impossible.

Trasoff, who is on vacation for 10 days, would say only that, “It’s been a tremendous honor to serve as a council member for the last four years.”

Kozachik, meanwhile, said he is already starting to work on building his staff.

The Pima County Elections Department still has 3,400 problem ballots left to count, although the rule of thumb is that 25 percent of those won’t end up being valid.