Although Election Day may be in the rear-view mirror for most people, it’s definitely not over for a handful of candidates in the San Joaquin Valley.
That’s because there are still tens of thousands of ballots left for elections officials to count. Case in point: in Merced County alone, although 45,754 ballots have been counted since Tuesday, there are still an estimated 38,000 left to count.
It’s a similar picture for other counties in the Valley and statewide.
On top of that, vote-by-mail ballots continue to arrive at Registrar of Voters offices daily. As long as those ballots were postmarked by 8 p.m. Nov. 5 and arrive to elections officials by the Nov. 12 deadline, they are valid and will be counted.
Melvin Levey, Merced County’s Registrar of Voters, told The Merced FOCUS his office received 250 vote-by-mail ballots Friday. He has roughly two dozen staff working Saturday and Monday, continuing the count.
In terms of local races, the two that most political observers are eyeing include the 13th Congressional District race between Rep. John Duarte and Adam Gray, along with 27th Assembly District race between Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria and Joanna Garcia Rose.
Although Democrat Gray was briefly ahead on election night, Duarte’s lead continued to grow as of Friday. The incumbent Republican now has more than 3,500 votes over Gray, a 51.4% to 48.6% split.
The 13th Congressional District includes Merced, Stanislaus, Madera and Fresno counties.
Soria has maintained a steady lead over Rose since Election Day, up 52.5% to 47.5%. The 27th Assembly District includes most of Merced County, plus parts of Madera and Fresno counties.
Levey said it’s still too early to definitively call any races in Merced County, given the number of uncounted ballots.
The Merced County Registrar of Voters updated its numbers Friday morning. The next update is expected to be released by 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14.
Although registered Democrats in Merced County generally outnumber Republicans, so far it appears most local voters supported the GOP when voting for president.
Roughly 52% of Merced County voters supported Donald Trump, compared with 45.72% for Kamala Harris, among ballots already counted.
It’s just amazing that the country of India with a billion voters can count their ballots and have the results on election day.