Gary Singh appears to be on his way to becoming the first Manteca City Council member of Punjabi American descent as well as one of the youngest — if not the youngest — ever elected.While there are still an estimated 10,000 absentee ballots left to be verified and counted within Manteca. Singh enjoyed a fairly substantial lead of 5,374 votes as 12:15 a.m. today over the other five candidates seeking two seats.Incumbent Debby Moorhead was in second with 4,532 votes followed by Jeff Zellner with 4,329 votes. Next was Ben Cantu at 2,096 votes, David Cushman with 1,736 votes, and Eric Hayes at 1,232 votes.“I’m still confident,” Zellner said of his prospects of overtaking Moorhead to claim the second seat once all the absentee ballots are counted.In previous city council races in San Joaquin County that have been close, the growing trend toward absentee voting meant the final results were not known for a week to two weeks.Election workers must manually check signatures on absentee ballots against voter rolls to verify them before they can be counted.Zellner said he’s buoyed by the number of people Tuesday who have been coming up and saying they voted for him.Moorhead is seeking her third four-year term.Singh credited his strong showing to volunteers that have worked for his election and delivering a message that he believes is resonating with voters.“I believe people like my business background,” Singh said.Singh — who helps run a family liquor store and is a real estate agent — has a degree from the University Of Pacific School Of Business.