Lungren, Smith Virtually Tied in Atty. Gen. Voting : Election: The Republican pulls to within 1,077 votes of the Democrat as the tabulation of absentee ballots continues.

Republican Dan Lungren on Tuesday pulled into a virtual tie with Democratic foe Arlo Smith in the bitterly contested race for state attorney general, as election officials across the state tallied the bulk of absentee ballots counted since last week’s state election.

Figures released late Tuesday afternoon by the secretary of state’s office showed Smith ahead by 1,077 votes statewide--out of more than 7 million votes cast.

Smith had led Lungren by 28,836 votes on election night. But Lungren has slowly but steadily chipped away at Smith’s lead as absentee ballots, which traditionally favor Republicans, have been counted across the state.

Lungren’s major surge came at 4:30 p.m. when the San Diego County registrar of voters office released figures showing that the former five-term congressman had picked up 16,567 votes in the southern county on San Francisco Dist. Atty. Smith.

Lungren is expected to gain additional ground in Los Angeles County--where he already picked up 5,904 votes in the first batch of 77,000 absentee ballots--when another 50,000 absentees are counted later this week. Lungren anticipates more gains in absentee votes in suburban counties such as Ventura and Orange where more than 65,000 ballots are still out.

Meanwhile, the Smith camp moved forward with court efforts to try to blunt the Lungren surge.

Marc Dann, Smith’s campaign manager, said attorneys were preparing to file a court suit against Secretary of State March Fong Eu, demanding that absentee votes be invalidated in counties where the registrars’ offices did not compare the signatures on absentee ballot applications with those on voters’ affidavits of registration.

If successful, said Dann, the suit could void the tabulation of absentee ballots in counties, including San Diego and Los Angeles, where Lungren has made significant gains.

Dann said the new suit is being filed in Orange County, where the Smith forces won a temporary halt to the absentee count last Saturday after raising the possibility of absentee-vote fraud. In an unusual weekend hearing, Orange County Superior Court Judge James Smith ordered Orange County Registrar of Voters Donald Tanney to temporarily cease counting absentees unless Tanney altered his tabulating methods.

Citing scattered reports statewide, the Smith camp has charged that Republican Party workers may have improperly submitted absentee ballot applications on behalf of an undetermined number of voters by forging signatures. While the voters may have otherwise properly cast absentee ballots, Smith is contending that their votes should not count if they received their ballots in a technically improper manner.

GOP officials have denied improperly submitting absentee applications on behalf of voters. Tanney has refused to change the method of his count, saying it would be wasteful.

A hearing on the initial lawsuit, which had been scheduled for today in Santa Ana, was pushed back to Friday after attorneys for Orange County requested more time to back up their position.

Lungren’s major boost in San Diego was not altogether unexpected since, on Election Day, the Long Beach native had walloped his Northern California opponent there by a count of 299,579 votes to Smith’s 221,707.

Bob Schwartz reported from Santa Ana and Carl Ingram from Sacramento.