With big-ticket items absent from Tuesday's election, voters trickled into polling places at a low rate, leaving some candidates to sweat out whether late ballots will swing results of races in coming days.

Just 60,670 voters, or 21.8 percent of 277,759 registered voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's election, according to the San Mateo County Elections Office. Vote-by-mail ballots totaled 37,971, while precinct voters cast 22,412 ballots.

The Elections Office still has about 5,000 to 6,000 provisional and late ballots to count, however, which should boost the turnout rate to about 26 percent or 27 percent, Elections Manager David Tom said. Elections officials had predicted low turnout, citing the general lack of interest in most local elections.

No new results were posted Wednesday. Tom said the results will be updated at 4:30 p.m. today at www.shapethefuture.org, the county elections site, and three other times through Nov. 16. With so few votes cast, some close races could still swing as the remaining ballots are counted in the coming days.

In Burlingame, for instance, Vice Mayor Cathy Baylock led Councilwoman Rosalie O'Mahony by for the final spot on the City Council by a count of 2,279 to 2,202, a difference of 77 votes.

In San Mateo, Mayor Brandt Grotte was edging appointed Councilman Fred Hansson, 4,427 to 4,297, a difference of 130 votes, for the council's last seat.

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But the closest contest is the Granada Sanitary District race, where two candidates were separated by a single vote for the final spot on the board of directors.

"I know everyone's eager to find out what the final count is going to be, but on the other hand we're not going to rush and not be accurate," Tom said.

Mike Rosenberg covers San Mateo, Burlingame, Belmont and transportation issues. Reach him at 650-348-4324.