Smith takes lead in 38th race
Latest update shows challenger for the 38th Assembly District ahead of Acosta with 1,718 more votes
Assembly District 38 challenger Christy Smith has pulled ahead of incumbent Dante Acosta as of Tuesday’s updated ballot count, with an unknown number of provisional and mail-in ballots remaining to be counted.
The latest update on Tuesday showed Smith with a 1.14 percent lead on Acosta with 1,718 more votes than the incumbent, according to the Ventura County and Los Angeles County Registrar’s offices.
Smith’s total vote count was 76,111, compared to Acosta’s 74,393.
Ventura County results showed Smith at 46.42 percent to Acosta’s 53.58 percent, while Los Angeles County results put Smith at 52.11 percent compared to Acosta’s 47.89 percent.
While ballots were still being counted in both Ventura and Los Angeles counties, Smith had closed the gap to 213 votes by Friday night.
All of the precincts in both counties have “partially reported,” according to the Secretary of State’s website, and ballots are likely to still be counted
throughout the next few weeks.
“We’re down at the registrar every day, making sure every vote gets counted,” Acosta spokesman David Creager said on Saturday.
“What’s most important to me is that every vote is counted, and that my opponent and I feel that the integrity of process was kept and everything was done according to the law,” Smith said on Saturday.
Both parties declined comment on Tuesday, citing the wildfires spreading throughout Southern California as a bigger priority.
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.”