Vote Count Continues In Denham-Harder Congressional Race

STANISLAUS COUNTY (CBS13) — The race for California's Congressional 10th District is still too close to call between Republican incumbent Jeff Denham and Democrat Josh Harder.

Denham led Harder by nearly 1,300 votes on Wednesday night.

This comes after problems at several polling places in Stanislaus County and an attempt to keep the doors open longer so people can vote. Hours after the polls opened, election observers began receiving complaints at 35 of the 147 polling places in Stanislaus County.

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"It was happening and a lot of people's rights were violated," said Lisa Battista, an attorney in Modesto.

The complaints included polling places running out of pink envelopes used to designate provisional ballots, which are handed out to voters whose registration could not be verified by poll workers.

"At one polling place they actually got some pink paper and photo copied the pink envelope onto the pink paper and then would staple it to the ballots," she said.

Battista volunteered to work as an election observer. She said several voters reported being turned away.

Lee Lundrigan, the Stanislaus County registrar of voters, says there was nothing unusual at the polling places except for the large amount of people who showed up to vote.

"The huge turnout was completely foreseeable, everybody knew there was going to be huge turnout, it wasn't a secret and that is something the register should be prepare for," Battista said.

Thousands of absentee, provisional and conditional ballots are now being processed. The registrar would not say how many ballots are left to count or when the county would be complete.

In a statement Harder's campaign said "we've known from the beginning this wasn't going to be resolved on election night. We will be watching the results closely in the days to come."

A spokesperson for Denham's campaign said "the returns continue to trend our way. We're in for the long haul. Our campaign remains confident."

Once the ballots are counted, anyone can request a recount. The person requesting the recount is liable for the costs of the recount unless the outcome of the election is changed.

The election results must be completed by Dec. 6.