Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you who supported our campaign with your contributions, your labor, and most importantly – your vote.
It truly is an honor to be your candidate for State Senate. And to everyone who braved the conditions to join us on Election Night, I hope you had a wonderful time!
I want to give you a quick update on where things are with the race. Right now, I’m only about 1,000 votes ahead of my opponent. Over 200,000 votes have been counted in the State Senate race so far, and anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 ballots are expected to be counted in the coming weeks.
So until we have a clearer picture, this race is still too close to call.
The story so far:
Last night, shortly after 8:00 pm, the first results (which had me ahead by 10 points) included all the ballots received before Election Day. Most of those ballots were mailed through the postal service. That means our voters were especially good about voting by mail. Great job everybody!
The next few batches of ballots that were counted were from Election Day voters, or people who actually walked into a Vote Center and voted in-person. These voters are heavily Republican, so when these votes were counted, my lead shrunk substantially.
Over the next few weeks, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters and the Orange County Registrar of Voters will begin tabulating the mail-in ballots received AFTER Election Day, ballots from the official drop boxes, and some other categories such as provisional ballots and those from overseas military bases.
We expect these ballots will be similar to the ones counted in the first batch of results, and that my lead will likely increase as more votes are counted.
With the many different voting methods available, and all the internal verification procedures they require, it will take time for all the votes to be counted. But they will be counted. And an accurate count is better than a fast count.
Bottom line – this process could take weeks to finalize. The Registrar of Voters in San Diego and Orange Counties have excellent reputations, and I’m sure the public servants will do their duties with professionalism and distinction.
Eventually, we may ask for volunteers to help with some post-election activities, which will include observing the count and helping voters cure their rejected ballots. If you can spare a few hours, please sign up here.
We’re incredibly proud of the campaign that we ran, and optimistic that when all the votes are counted, we will be victorious!
Let’s all hang in there! I promise to keep you updated.
With great appreciation,
