In some races, the election isn’t over

Three statewide elections were still unresolved Monday, nearly one week after polls closed.

Razor-thin vote margins separated the top contenders in the races for the 4th Congressional District, 19th state Senate District and 10th Assembly District. Proposition 11, the redistricting initiative backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was also too close to call.

It could be weeks before the outcomes of the races are decided because, statewide, roughly 2.7 million ballots still have not been counted. They include damaged ballots that need to be counted manually, mail-in ballots that were received too late to be counted on election day and provisional ballots, which need to be verified to make sure that the person who voted was entitled to do so.

Election officials have until Dec. 2 to count and report the votes, and the results will not be certified by the California secretary of state until Dec. 13. But it is likely that the candidates will declare victory or concede defeat based on unofficial tallies before then.

One of the contests still up in the air Monday was the hard-fought race for the 4th Congressional District, a Republican stronghold in Northern California where Republican Tom McClintock was leading Democrat Charlie Brown 50.2% to 49.8%. McClintock, a state senator who lives in the Sacramento area but who long represented a district in Southern California, had an 889-vote margin over Brown, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

There are an estimated 57,000 votes yet to be processed in that election, and both campaigns have hired lawyers to monitor the vote counting, aides say.

In the 19th state Senate District, which is made up of parts of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson was leading Republican Tony Strickland 50.2% to 49.8% on Monday.

And in the 10th Assembly District, which is made up of parts of Sacramento, El Dorado and San Joaquin counties, Republican Jack Sieglock was leading Democrat Alyson L. Huber 46.7% to 46.5%. Libertarian candidate Janice M. Bonser had won 6.8% of the votes.

Also unclear is the fate of Proposition 11, a measure that would transfer the authority of redistricting from legislators to a committee of 14 California registered voters -- five Democrats, five Republicans and four voters unaffiliated with either party. As of Monday, the proposition was winning by 127,156 votes.

Election officials counting ballots in the 4th Congressional District and the 19th state Senate District also will be required to complete a manual tally of the ballots cast in 10% of the precincts.

The secretary of state orders a hand count of some of the ballots whenever the margin between two candidates is less than one-half of one percentage point on election day.

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kate.linthicum@latimes.com