The ballot tally for the 25th Congressional District special election continued to gradually increase on Thursday for both Republican Mike Garcia and Democrat Christy Smith.
Updated numbers on Thursday showed that Garcia, who led the polls throughout election night on Tuesday, had earned 82,321 votes or 56%. Assemblywoman Christy Smith, D-Santa Clarita, received 64,671 votes (44%), according to the California Secretary of State.
The percentages remained the same since Wednesday and individual tallies increased by more than 2,000 votes for each.
No new information regarding the total number of uncounted ballots was available Thursday. On Wednesday, only the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk reported an estimated 21,700 ballots had yet to be counted.
An official winner is expected to be named over the next several days as ballots postmarked by Tuesday and received by Friday will be counted due to the nearly all-mail election.
On Wednesday, Garcia, a former fighter pilot, declared victory and said during a phone interview that he was ready to “represent this great district” and said he hoped to be sworn in as soon as next week.
In a prepared statement, Smith congratulated Garcia and said she would shift her attention toward winning the November election, in which the winner will serve for the new two-year term of the currently vacant House seat.
