About 7,000 absentee votes in Suffolk have yet to be reported, leaving races for Suffolk mayor, City Council and School Board hanging in the balance.

As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, the voter registrar’s office was still counting absentee ballots, said an employee there. Repeated calls the rest of the afternoon went unanswered. At 8:30 p.m., the results still had not been posted to the State Board of Elections Web site, and the lights were out when a News-Herald reporter stopped by the office.

The delay theoretically leaves seven Suffolk offices undecided. None of the apparent winners is separated from his or her closest competitor by more than 7,000, although it’s unlikely a single write-in candidate will garner enough votes to oust Rob Barclay IV, the lone candidate for the Sleepy Hole borough of City Council.

Without absentee votes, the apparent winners are:

For mayor, Linda T. Johnson.

For City Council, Rob Barclay IV, Sleepy Hole; Curtis Milteer, Whaleyville; Leroy Bennett, Nansemond.

For School Board, Diane Foster, Sleepy Hole; Phyllis Byrum, Whaleyville; Thelma Hinton, Nansemond.