AREA — Democrats hold an early lead in council races in both Garwood and Cranford as votes continue to be counted across the county.

In Garwood, Democrats Vincent Kearney (832) and incumbent Russell Graham (846) hold a lead over Republican challengers Jesse Wilson (509) and Joseph Nicastro (545). A democratic win will give the party full control of the governing body.

In Cranford, which saw four newcomers to the race, Democrats Brian Andrews (5,369) and Jason Gareis (5,133) led Chrissa Stulpin (3,213) and Gina Black (3,177).

For the three seats up for grabs in the Cranford Board of Education race, Kurt Petschow (4,971), Kristen Mallon (5,336) and Lisa Carbone (5,319) appear to have bested Francis Riccio, III (1,949).

In Westfield’s Board of Education Race, Sonal Patel (3,356), Leila Morrelli (3,755) and Sahar Aziz (3,180) are leading Paul Monusky (2,785), Wendy Rogers (1,840), Deborah Feldman-Kahn (1,792), David Sexton (1,507), Kent Diamond (1,932), Priti Dave (1,900) and Eldanydia Pavon (1,169).

In the 7th Congressional District, incumbent Democrat Tom Malinowski (147,264) appears the victor over Republican Tom Kean, Jr. (118,863) with approximately 60 percent of the vote counted.

The district spans portions of Union, Morris, Middlesex and Hunterdon Counties.

Due to the combination of mail-in ballots, drop boxes and provisional ballots cast on Election Day, the Union County Clerk will be updating the election counts to the public at noon each day with the election being certified on Friday, November 20.

In typical election years, numbers are more readily available on Election Day due to machine tabulated votes capturing the majority of the votes and absentee (mail-in) ballots counting for a much smaller percentage.