The news today is that Democrat Jim Costa has taken the lead in California's 20th Congressional District, where the Republican challenger appeared to have won on Election night by 1823 votes. But as absentee and provisional ballots were counted in the district's three counties - Fresno, Kern and Kings - that margin steadily decreased.
The congressman claimed victory Wednesday after he took a 1,200-vote lead: "This has been a hard-fought campaign, obviously, but now it appears as if it is over," Costa said at a news conference. However, the challenger, Andy Vidak, isn't conceding: "You can look at trends," he says, "but to declare victory, well, it's not over till it's over. We have no idea how many votes are left to count in Fresno County."
Kings County, which gave Vidak his initial lead, has finished counting its ballots, while there remain thousands uncounted in Fresno and Kern counties, where Costa has been winning 60% of the vote. Ultimately, Costa expects to win by 2,400-2,500 votes. Currently, the vote count is Costa 39,829 (50.9%) and Vidak 38,511 (49.1%). Link
According to the Fresno BEE:
Costa commended Vidak for a "hard fought campaign," but then, in a dig at his opponent, said "to acknowledge problems we have is different than offering constructive solutions."
Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar said about 34,000 absentee ballots were counted countywide since last Friday. He estimates about 15,000 to 20,000 remain to be counted, including many outside the 20th Congressional District. He hopes to finish counting absentee ballots by Friday and then start on the county's provisional ballots.