They counted another 11,000 or so ballots in Ventura County, and Strickland picked up a net 1100 or so votes, putting Strickland up about 1600 votes as of now. Estimates are that there are at least 30,000+ ballots left to count in Ventura County (good for Strickland), around 6,000+ ballots in Santa Barbara County (good for Jackson) and at least 1500+ more ballots left in the LA County portion of the district (it's Santa Clarita – and very good for Strickland). Bottom line — looking very good for Strickland. But as they say, it ain't over 'til its over…
November 13th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Ventura County reported results from an additional 11,238 votes in the 19th Assembly District today. Tony’s percentage of this latest batch climbed to 55.04% (compared to 52.32% for all the previous ballots), netting him an additional 1,132 votes to add to yesterday’s lead of 540.
Santa Barbara County reported results from an additional 560 votes in the 19th Assembly District today. Tony’s percentage of this latest batch dropped to 40.0% (compared to 44.76% for all the previous ballots), reducing his lead by 112 votes.
Combining the above two numbers, Tony’s lead now stands at 1,560.
Given the paucity of ballots remaining in Santa Barbara, and the still-substantial number left in Ventura County, the counting has reached the point where even a radical shift towards HBJ in the provisional ballots won’t be enough to flip the outcome.
I’m calling the race for Tony. It ain’t over till it’s over, but it’s now over.