With Ballots Still Out, Most Races Called

The race to tally an unprecedented number of absentee and provisional ballots —more than 122,000 in Alameda County alone when polls closed Nov. 2 — is nearing completion, county workers said Friday. 

Yet, despite the fact that the latest ballots have raised the county's vote total by 15 percent, few races have been won or lost in the week since the

A slim but likely insurmountable margin separates challengers in the Oro Loma Sanitary District race and the contest from their next nearest competitors. Many had predicted close races like these might swing after additional votes were counted, but that doesn't appear to have happened.  

By Tuesday Nov. 9, there were still some 24,500 local ballots left to count. Of those, 15,000 were vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at the polls on Election Day. Another 9,500 were provisional ballots. 

Alameda wasn't the only county inundated with at the polls. Statewide, more than 1 million ballots were still believed uncounted by Wednesday.  Neighboring Contra Costa County reported 102,000 uncounted ballots in its backlog. 

Officials said Friday they hope to have all but 1 percent of votes tabulated by this afternoon.