OC Political

The OC vote count continues, but we are spared Florida’s 2000 chad problem

After counting 45,647 ballots yesterday (and with more ballots arriving from the Post Office for the last time, as that was the deadline for ballots to arrive), the Orange County Registrar of Voters reports 127,867 ballots remain while 584,025 have been counted, which means 82.1% of OC’s 711,892 ballots have already been counted (we now know OC voter turnout in the 2020 primary is 43.6%).

As OC Political noted Thursday, the Secretary of State defines “Close Contests” as those races where there is a margin of 2% or less, so we are tracking Orange County’s close contests where there is a margin of 2% or less.

Because Central Committee races are exhausting to analyze and write about (and presumably exhausting to read about), only races where a new person is in sixth place (since the top six are elected in each district) are covered below.  So instead of Republican Central Committee for five districts and Democratic Central Committee for seven districts, only one Central Committee race is below: 69th District for the Republican Central Committee.

37th Senate District

In the 37th Senate District race for the second slot to reach the top two against Senator John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa), UCI Law Professor Dave Min (D-Irvine) grew his lead over Mayor Katrina Foley (D-Costa Mesa) by 1,357 votes, which brings his lead to 3,804 votes (1.97%), and SD-37 may well lose its “close contest” designation in the next count or two.  He previously led by 2,447 votes (1.37%), and before that, he led by 2,333 votes (1.36%).

In the 72nd Assembly District race for the second slot to reach the top two against former Senator Janet Nguyen (R-Fountain Valley), incumbent Tyler Diep (R-Westminster) saw his lead continue to shrink against Councilwoman Diedre Nguyen (D-Garden Grove) as late Democratic ballots continue to fuel Diedre Nguyen.