Acosta’s lead in 38th race narrows

Updated election results indicate Christy Smith, Democratic challenger to Assemblyman Dante Acosta in the 38th Assembly District race, now trails the GOP incumbent by 213 votes.

The latest Secretary of State results, as of Nov. 9, show Smith now trailing Acosta by 0.16 percent.

Previous totals that discounted remaining provisional and mail-in ballot counts showed Smith trailing Acosta by one percentage point and 1,222 votes in the early morning returns of Nov. 7.

As of Friday, Acosta, R-Santa Clarita, has 68,518 votes, while Smith has 68,305 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

The Ventura County totals for the 38th Assembly District had Acosta at 53.5 percent and Smith at 46.5 percent, while Smith had 51.3 percent of the Los Angeles County totals, with Acosta at 48.7 percent.

“What is most important to me in an election like the one we just had, is that voters are assured that every one of their votes is counted,” Smith said on Friday. “I will continue watching those totals, and we have staff in place watching in both counties to ensure that every voter needs to be heard. That is what we are focused on.”

Acosta’s campaign was not immediately available for comment Friday night.

The L.A. County Registrar-Recorder’s Office didn’t have a full tally available for the number of of uncounted provisional and absentee ballots for the 38th Assembly District race; however, countywide, official reports note there are 361,316 provisional ballots remaining throughout the county, and 266,785 vote-by-mail ballots left uncounted, according to the registrar’s office.

“It typically takes weeks for counties to process and count all of the ballots,” the Secretary of State’s website states. “State law requires county elections officials to report their final results to the Secretary of State by Dec. 7, 2018. The Secretary of State has until Dec. 14, 2018, to certify the results for the election.”