Here’s an update California’s 44th District, where Democrat Bill Hedrick has posted a breathtakingly close performance against GOP Rep. Ken Calvert. Hedrick Communications Director Lori Vandermeir sends us the following statement:
We’re currently down by about 4,600 votes but there are up to 100,000 ballots (provisional and late vote-by-mail) that have yet to be counted. That process will begin today.
Both the OC Register and the Press Enterprise had earlier called this race for Calvert, but have since rescinded that claim and drawn the same conclusion we have – until every last vote has been counted, we will not know who has won.
As it stands now, with what has been counted, the results are:
Bill Hedrick 49%
Ken Calvert 51%As I mentioned, Calvert is about 4600 votes ahead of us at this point in time, but with tens of thousands of votes to count, the final result is still uncertain.
We are urging any voter within Riverside or Orange County (who voted in the 44th congressional race) and were issued a provisional ballot to contact the registrar of voters in their county to demand their ballot be counted.
Mr. Calvert’s lawyers have descended upon the registrar’s office and his team have been having private conversations with the county registrar in Riverside County that we obviously are worried about. We are gathering our lawyers now but really just need voters to help us demand their votes be counted.
So that’s where we stand at the moment.
Meanwhile, Calvert is finally declaring victory, but there are still tons of absentee and provisional ballots left to be counted in Riverside, where Hedrick actually beat Calvert by 53-47 in the early count.
Update: If you’ve voted by mail in Riverside County and want to check out the status of your ballot, this is a helpful link.
P.S. – And in case you didn’t see below, Democrat Tom Perriello is now leading by 832 votes in Virginia’s 5th District.