Tony Strickland leads by roughly 1500 votes Friday Night

The Issue: 4 days after the election no winner has been determined for California State Senate District 19.  With many ballots still to be counted, Tony Strickland now leads by roughly 1500 votes.  Democrats are expected to sue Ventura County because of the ballot review process.

California’s election for State Senate District 19 remains undecided.  The polls closed with Democrat Hannah Beth Jackson leading Republican Tony Strickland by 108 votes to replace Republican Tom McClintock (who is struggling in his own election for Congress).  Now, 4 days later and with 50,000 absentee and provisional ballot votes left to be counted Tony Strickland now leads Hannah Beth Jackson by as much as 1,500 votes, depending on the source.

I witnessed some of the ballot counting personally.  Many referred to the ballot supervision process as “watching paint dry.”  The supervision process, which includes both volunteers and lawyers from the Democratic and Republican parties involves watching over the shoulders of Ventura County Elections Division Employees as they duplicate ballots that could not be read by ballot reading machines or match signatures on Vote-By-Mail Ballots to the signature on file electronically with the county.

After it was determined that ballot inspectors were disrupting the elections employees’ ability to review the vote-by-mail ballots, the inspectors were confined to an “inspection zone” inside the elections division office, restricting their access to ballot signatures.  The California Democratic Party is expected to sue the County of Ventura to gain greater access to the ballot counting process.

Informal reports from the Strickland campaign report that Tony Strickland now leads by as much as 1500 votes as of Friday night.  A source from the Jackson campaign called the lead closer to 800 votes, not including Los Angeles County, which is expected to break for Strickland.  Saturday vote counting continues in Santa Barbara county, the area of Senate District 19 expected to break for Jackson with its roughly 30,000 remaining votes.

Analysis: Still too close to call, but Strickland is looking better.

We went from Hannah-Beth by 108 to Strickland by 1,500, but as many as 50,000 votes may be uncounted.  Plus, if the race is within a half percent, there will be a recount.  Let’s hope we have a victor by Inauguration Day in December.

Disclosure:  The author has volunteered time for the Strickland for Senate Campaign