The last ballots in the yet-to-be-finalized election of either
Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, or David Harmer, R-San Ramon, for the
11th Congressional District could be counted and the race declared
as soon as this afternoon.
The last ballots in the yet-to-be-finalized election of either Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, or David Harmer, R-San Ramon, for the 11th Congressional District could be counted and the race declared as soon as this afternoon.
The latest report by the Secretary of State’s office came at 7:25 p.m. Tuesday with McNerney leading by 628 votes with 88,890 districtwide over Harmer’s 88,262 or 47.8 percent over 47.3 percent.
The rhythm and routine of the post-election vote count continued in San Joaquin County on Tuesday. Election workers are still counting votes on the nearly 30,000 absentee ballots collected on Election Day, but there has been plenty of work done over long days since Nov. 2. The district covers Morgan Hill and dips into Gilroy reaching as far north as Lodi, about 125 miles away.
And since a race for Congress between incumbent McNerney and Harmer still hangs in the balance, every move is being watched by teams of observers from each camp.
In the county Registrar of Voters office on the third floor of the County Administration Building in downtown Stockton on Tuesday morning, a machine sliced open yellow envelopes that voters had stuffed with ballots and sent through the mail to the elections office at the last minute or dropped off at polling places on Election Day. Folded in thirds, ballots must be unfolded and flattened so they won’t gum up vote-counting machinery.
On a nearby table, a pair of election workers tidied up ballots to make sure the machines will correctly count each voter’s intended votes. Here’s where workers fill in the bubbles voters didn’t mark properly, or put white correction tape over marks that shouldn’t be read as votes.
The workers share the table with observers from both campaigns.
All the county’s absentee ballots could be ready to count sometime Wednesday, said Registrar of Voters Austin Erdman. The campaigns eagerly await the result. More voters in the 11th Congressional District live in San Joaquin County than the combined total of those living in the district’s other three counties. Results have been dribbling in since last Wednesday from those three counties. On Tuesday, McNerney led by 628 votes.
By contrast, San Joaquin County will count and report all the absentee ballots at once. Such a large number of votes could give a clearer picture of the direction of the race. All told, Harmer got more votes than McNerney in San Joaquin County. But the lead he took early narrowed after the polling results from the final county precinct was counted.
The absentee tally won’t end the count; there still will be more than 8,000 provisional ballots to go through in the county. It could be weeks. The deadline is Nov. 30. After that, a recount could be in the cards.
McNerney and Harmer agreed on few things during the long campaign leading up to Election Day, except that it was going to be a close race.
