Ahn yields to Gomez, then backtracks
Losing campaign says vote ‘anomalies’ raise possibility of unlikely win in House race.
It was a relatively early end to election night Tuesday: Robert Lee Ahn called to concede to his opponent, Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, before 11 p.m., and the Associated Press called the race for Gomez shortly after.
As of Thursday, Gomez was leading Ahn 60% to 40% in the race for the 34th Congressional District, which includes much of central and northeast Los Angeles.
But in a statement released Thursday morning, the Ahn campaign cited “anomalies” in the vote and said he could still win.
“We believe it is critical that every vote cast now be counted,” campaign manager David Meraz said.
“We’re now in the statistical margin for victory,” said Ahn spokesman James Lee, citing the estimated 10,400-plus provisional and mail-in ballots that have yet to be counted.
A statement from the Ahn campaign said that if 70% of those ballots went to Ahn, he would be the “duly elected representative for the 34th District.”
But the math doesn’t hold up: If 70% of those ballots were counted in favor of Ahn, the tally would put Gomez at approximately 22,800 votes and Ahn at 20,430.
Asked about the discrepancy, Lee said the 70% figure would “get us within the statistical margin.”
“That’s our internal analysis and we’re sticking to it,” he said. The campaign then corrected the statement, saying the figure was closer to 80%.
The statement also said that Ahn received an “unprecedented share” of latearriving ballots in the primary election and noted that hundreds of voters had not received their mail-in ballots the weekend before Tuesday’s runoff due to a glitch in the voter registration system. Most of those voters did receive their ballots before election day, the Los Angeles County registrar said.
Lee said it was “just weird” that Ahn received about 90% of the votes from the last major batch of ballots counted in the primary.
“Those ballots that were held back were primarily in the western part of the district, which is Robert’s area,” Lee said.
Dean Logan, the county registrar, said some of those ballots in the primary actually had been held back until the final count at the request of the Ahn campaign.
After a printing mistake on Korean-language sample ballots, the Ahn campaign asked for any ballots turned in before the mistake was fixed to be separated. That allowed voters time to request and vote with a new ballot if they wanted. County officials agreed.
The next update of the vote tally is expected to be released Friday.
County election officials do not call elections in favor of one candidate or another, and the official winner of the race won’t be announced until the election results are certified, which is scheduled to happen June 16.
A consultant for Gomez, who has begun making preparations to move to Washington, cast doubt on Ahn’s analysis.
“It’s kind of a stretch to think that a 20-point margin is in danger,” said Parke Skelton. “This isn’t the first time that the campaign has alleged that there’s some kind of conspiracy to suppress his vote. It would be good if he presented some evidence rather than just accusations.”