With nearly 9,000 ballots left to be counted Wednesday in Santa Barbara County, it remained mathematically possible that a candidate who did not even campaign could be pushed ahead of two other candidates into a November runoff election for a North County judge?s seat in Superior Court.

John MacKinnon, a district attorney?s prosecutor in the North County, took a solid lead Tuesday over Jed Beebe, a Superior Court research attorney, and Kevin Ready, an attorney with the Santa Barbara County Counsel?s office, by taking 39.6 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting.

Beebe came in second, with 21.6 percent of the votes; Ready took 19 percent.

Since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, Beebe appeared headed to a runoff against MacKinnon in November.

However, Lynn Cutler, who said in March that he was pulling out of the race but was too late to remove his name from the ballot, came in just ahead of Ready with 19.2 percent of the vote. Like MacKinnon, Cutler is a prosecutor in the North County.

MacKinnon, Beebe and Ready are vying for the North County judge seat left vacant by the Diana Hall?s removal from the bench in December 2006 for misconduct. The judgeship, which is a six-year term, is voted on countywide.

The numbers could change, as County Clerk-Assessor-Recorder Joe Holland said Wednesday that 8,892 outstanding ballots, including 8,136 vote-by-mail ballots and 756 provisional ballots, remained to be counted.

The vote-by-mail ballots should be counted by the end of the week, Holland said, and the provisional ballots should be counted by early next week.

Beebe was separated from Cutler by 1,276 votes, and Cutler was separated from Ready by 94 votes, well within the possibility of changing positions as the remaining votes are counted.

MacKinnon led Beebe by 9,454 votes, ensuring his place in the November election.

BIf he (Cutler) gets in the top two, then he will be in a runoff in November even though he dropped out of the race,C Holland said.

BBoth of our gut feelings are, that once you?re on the ballot, you can?t stop the process,C he said of himself and Chief Deputy Registrar of Voters Billie Alvarez.

Holland said that once a candidate files candidate papers and pays the fee, his or her name can?t be removed from the ballot.

He said that theoretically, a candidate could get elected and refuse to take office.

The County Counsel?s office was being consulted on the issue of what would happen if Cutler placed second, Holland said.

Cutler would not say what his actions would be if he was voted to the November runoff.

When he dropped out of the race in March, he said he

didn?t believe he had the requisite interest to devote all of the time, energy and resources necessary to make a successful countywide campaign.

Cutler said Wednesday that it was nice to see that someone could make a showing in a race without making Ban obvious fool of himself by showing up and glad-handing everyone.C

BI was flattered and I was touched by my showing,C he added.

He said he thought his terse and to-the-point candidate statement struck a chord with voters.

In response to Ready?s comment Tuesday night that the number of votes Cutler received was an indication that voters are ill-informed, Cutler said, BThey knew what they were doing and they didn?t want him. To suggest otherwise is just sour grapes.C

Holland said that although candidates drop out of races all the time, he?d never seen a candidate who pulled out do as well at the polls as Cutler.

BThat?s surprising,C Holland said.

Samantha Yale can be reached at 739-2159 or syale@santamaria

times.com.