Two days after the election, there are still an estimated 400,365 uncounted ballots countywide, with no way of telling which close races those votes will affect.
At the Registrar of Voters headquarters in Santa Ana Thursday, dozens of volunteers from the Republican and Democratic parties, and members of the public, observed workers verifying signatures and counting ballots, a process that will likely take the Registrar up to the 30-day state deadline to verify the election.
Thousands of mail-in ballots sent to the Registrar on election day still are arriving each day, said Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley, with 16,000 ballots arriving Wednesday alone.
Kelley estimates Orange County saw 65 percent of voters turn out this election.
The county drew national attention this year because of four key Congressional races where the Republican-held districts voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. It appears so far that Democrats have gained enough seats nationally to win a majority in the 435-seat House of Representatives.
Fred Whitaker, chair of the Orange County Republican Party, wrote in a statement Thursday that the party saw positive results in a number of local races but there are still five “critical races still in the balance,” referring to three congressional contests, the race for fourth district supervisor and for the 74th state Assembly district.
The party has had “over 20 volunteers and lawyers at the Registrar of Voters for 12 hours a day,” Whitaker wrote.
In her own statement, Democratic Party of Orange County chair Fran Sdao said Orange County “shook the nation by taking a Democratic majority of Orange County’s Congressional delegation.”
Several news organizations have called the 49th Congressional District for Democrat Mike Levin, a first-time candidate and environmental attorney who beat out Republican Diane Harkey, a former member of the Board of Equalization. The latest update gave Levin a 7.4% percent lead.
Whitaker, in his statement, said the 49th is the only district with “too great a margin to win” and thanked Harkey “for her valiant effort with no national support.”
But races in the 39th, 45th and 48th congressional districts are extremely close.
The Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters, which is updating vote counts every other day, estimated 984,000 ballots were left to count as of Wednesday. Portions of the 39th congressional district fall in Los Angeles county.
Below is a run-down of updated vote counts in some of the county’s key races.
Congressional Races
48th Congressional District
Harley Rouda (D): 98,259 votes, 51.2%
Dana Rohrabacher (R, Incumbent): 93,503 votes, 48.8%
Rouda’s lead over Rohrabacher increased slightly from two points to 2.4 points since the last update. 4,756 votes separate the two candidates. Correction: A typing error in an earlier version of this story incorrectly showed Rohrabacher had 95,503 votes.
39th Congressional District
Young Kim (R): 78,667 votes, 51.3%
Gil Cisneros (D): 74,793 votes, 48.7%
Kim’s lead fell from 2.6 to 2.5 percent since the last update. Updated figures are calculated based on vote counts report from Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
45th Congressional District
Mimi Walters (R): 99,639 votes, 51%
Katie Porter (D): 95,602 votes, 49%
Walters’ lead has narrowed from 3.2 to 2 percent since the last update.
49th Congressional District
Mike Levin (D): 98,240 votes, 53.72%
Diane Harkey (R): 84,636 votes, 46.28%
Updated figures are calculated based on vote counts reported from Orange and San Diego counties.
State-Level Races
65th State Assembly
Sharon Quirk-Silva (D): 41,412 votes, 53%
Alexandria “Alex” Coronado (R): 36,763 votes, 47%
Quirk-Silva’s lead has increased from 5.8 to 6 percent since the last update.
74th State Assembly
Cottie Petrie-Norris (D): 64,284 votes, 50.2%
Matthew Harper (R): 63,664 votes, 49.8%
Harper was previously ahead, but the lead has flipped with Petrie-Norris ahead by 0.4%, or 620 votes.
County-Level Races
Fourth District Supervisor
Tim Shaw: 45,980 votes, 50.8%
Doug Chaffee: 44,481 votes, 49.2%
The margin between the two candidates has stayed virtually the same.
District Attorney
Todd Spitzer: 305,453 votes, 52.9%
Tony Rackauckas: 271,483 votes, 47.1%
The margin between the two candidates has stayed virtually the same.
Sheriff-Coroner
Don Barnes: 335,905 votes, 56.8%
Duke Nguyen: 255,127 votes, 43.2%
The margin between the two candidates has stayed virtually the same. Duke Nguyen conceded this race on Wednesday.
City Races
This list only shows the top vote-getters. View results for all the candidates on the Registrar of Voters website.
Anaheim Mayor
Harry Sidhu: 16,856 votes, 35.9%
Ashleigh Aitken: 13,889 votes, 29.6%
The margin between the two candidates is virtually the same since the last update.
Anaheim City Council, District 2
Jordan Brandman: 2,648 votes, 40.5%
James Derek Vanderbilt: 2,051 votes, 31.4%
The margin between the two candidates is virtually the same since the last update.
Anaheim City Council, District 3
Jose F. Moreno: 2,852 votes, 50.4%
Mitch Caldwell: 1,859 votes, 32.9%
The margin between the two candidates is virtually the same since the last update.
Anaheim City Council, District 6
Trevor O’Neil: 6,927 votes, 45.9%
Patty Gaby: 5,282 votes, 35.0%
The margin between the two candidates is virtually the same since the last update.
Anaheim Measure L
Yes: 24,237 votes, 50.6%
No: 23,685 votes, 49.4%
The margin in this race is virtually the same since the last update.
Santa Ana Mayor
Miguel Pulido: 14,703 votes, 53.6%
Sal Tinajero: 12,725 votes, 46.4%
The margin between these two candidates has stayed virtually the same since the last update.
Santa Ana City Council, Ward 2
David Penaloza: 7,472 votes 28.5%
Sandra Pena Sarmiento: 5,003 votes, 19.1%
The margin between these two candidates has stayed virtually the same since the last update.
Santa Ana City Council, Ward 4
Roman Reyna: 13,864 votes, 53%
Phil Bacerra: 12,308 votes, 47%
The margin between these two candidates has stayed virtually the same since the last update.
Santa Ana City Council, Ward 6
Cecilia “Ceci” Iglesias: 10,560 votes, 40.1%
Nelida Medoza: 8,117 votes, 30.8%
Mirna Velasquez: 7,685 votes, 29.2%
The margin between these two candidates has stayed virtually the same since the last update.