County Supervisor's Race Still Too Close to Call

Andrew Do picked up 237 votes today on former state Sen. Lou Correa in the race for First District Orange County supervisor.

Do had a two-vote lead after ballots were tallied Tuesday night, but that lead expanded as Orange County Registrar of Voters officials counted vote- by-mail ballots dropped off at polling places.

According to the latest tally, Do has 18,230 votes, or 39.3 percent, and Correa has 17,991, or 38.8 percent. Garden Grove city Councilman Chris Phan is a distant third at 7,592, or 18.4 percent of the vote, followed by television news anchor Chuyen Van Nguyen at 1,806, or 3.9 percent, and Lupe Morfin-Moreno, a specialist with the Orange County Health Care Agency, at 800 votes, or 1.7 percent.

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The top vote-getter will take office.

Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said there were about 4,700 vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at various precincts on Tuesday.

There were 1,264 provisional ballots cast as well on Tuesday. Officials will begin counting provisional ballots Thursday, Kelley said.

Also to be counted are 150 paper ballots cast by voters who did not want to use the electronic machines, Kelley said.

“My plan is to be completely done by Friday evening,” Kelley said.

After seeing just a two-vote difference after last night’s tabulations, Kelley joked that he felt like he was in a “Twilight Zone” episode. In 2007, the last time there was a special election for the First District, election night ended with a seven-vote difference, with Janet Nguyen ultimately prevailing. She was elected to the state Senate, triggering Tuesday’s special election.

“We’re eight years down the road and all the same people are here” observing the vote counting, Kelley said with a laugh.

Do was Nguyen’s chief of staff. And it was Correa’s election to the state Senate in 2007 that triggered that special election.

The First District includes Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Westminster, the unincorporated Midway City area and portions of Fountain Valley.

• City News Service