Hundreds of thousands of ballots from the Nov. 7 election have yet to be counted throughout the state, including a third of the votes cast in Riverside County, election officials said Wednesday.
The uncounted ballots could affect a number of tight elections across Southern California, including a City Council race in Alhambra and a state Senate seat in Orange County. Candidates who trailed in the preliminary ballot counts on election night could conceivably end up winning, elections officials said.
"It's a possibility, perhaps not a probability, but certainly I'm always hopeful," said Democrat Steve Clute, who trails Republican incumbent Bonnie Garcia by 1,100 votes in the race for the 80th Assembly District in the Coachella Valley.
The stockpile of uncounted ballots was caused primarily by the flood of absentee ballots that were dropped off at polling places on election day or delivered by the Postal Service in the days leading up to the election, elections officials said. Counting those ballots is an arduous task, they said.
"There's also a tendency by the newer population of absentee voters to want to hold onto ballots until the end, because that is when campaigns get into full gear," said Dean Logan, chief deputy to the Los Angeles County registrar of voters.
In Orange County, 24,400 uncounted absentee ballots and provisional ballots--those cast by voters whose names do not appear on the rolls but are accepted pending verification by the registrar's office--could change things in the 34th state Senate District race. Lou Correa, the Orange County supervisor and former Democratic state assemblyman, trails Republican Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher by just over a 100 votes.
In Los Angeles County, where 1.9 million people cast votes, election officials reported 124,000 uncounted ballots that could decide two tightly contested local propositions in Arcadia and an Alhambra City Council race, where Stephen K. Sham leads by fewer than 200 votes over Carlos A. Chavez.
And in Riverside County, news of the 120,000 uncounted ballots -- nearly double election officials' earlier assessment -- has generated even more uncertainty around eight races that remain too close to call, including the contest in 80th Assembly District.
As more people vote by mail, more delays such as these should be expected, said Stephen Weir, president of the California Assn. of Clerks and Election Officials, which includes the registrars of voters and other chief election officials in the state's 58 counties.
