Alarcon Leads Katz by 33 Votes; 350 Uncounted

The neck-and-neck race for a state Senate seat in the San Fernando Valley remained close Tuesday after the final tally of absentee ballots, with City Councilman Richard Alarcon holding a 33-vote lead over former Assemblyman Richard Katz.

About 350 so-called provisional ballots from the state’s 20th Senate District remained to be counted, assuring that a winner in the hard-fought Democratic primary won’t be known for days, perhaps weeks.

“When it’s all said and done, we are anticipating a recount in this race,” said County Registrar-Recorder Conny B. McCormack.

Election officials Tuesday counted about 1,200 outstanding absentee and provisional ballots from the district. Provisional ballots are cast by voters whose names do not appear on the rolls but are accepted by poll workers pending verification.

As of the latest count, Alarcon had 38,272 votes, or 40.90%, compared to Katz with 38,239 votes, or 40.87%, a difference of only 0.03%.

Both candidates remained optimistic but nervous as they awaited another tally Friday, the next scheduled election update.

“It gives me optimism that the remaining ballots, which are mostly provisional ballots, will be consistent with the voters on election day,” said Alarcon.

Katz said he is “cautiously optimistic” but noted that it is nearly impossible to guess the outcome based on the type of ballots that remain.

“It’s a lot of tea leaves and supposition,” he said.

Katz said he is keeping his mind off the race by lifting weights, playing basketball and running. “I’ve achieved records previously unreached in all three sports,” he said.

The race has been unusually close from the beginning. After the polls closed last Tuesday, Katz had a 2-1 lead in early results. But by the time all the ballots from the polls were counted, Alarcon held a 791-vote lead, with about 100,000 absentee and provisional ballots left to be tallied countywide.

On Friday, Alarcon’s lead shrank to 27, after election officials counted about 80,000 countywide ballots.

McCormack said the 350 provisional ballots remaining are mostly from voters who requested an absentee ballot, but for some reason showed up to vote at the polls anyway.

Over the next two days, she said, election officials will verify that those voters did not vote twice, once via absentee ballot and once at the polling sites.

Both campaigns have discussed the possibility of calling for a recount, which can only be requested within five days after the results have been certified by the County Board of Supervisors, McCormack said.

Should Alarcon hold onto his lead, it would vindicate his drive to get out the Latino vote. If Katz wins, it would be a triumph of his efforts to reach out to absentee voters.

An analysis of the results shows that Alarcon got strong support in the heavily Latino northeast portion of the district. Katz outpaced Alarcon among absentee voters, winning 8,838 absentee votes compared to 5,604 for Alarcon.

The winner faces Republican Ollie McCaulley and Libertarian Linda Starr in November in a heavily Democratic district.

If Alarcon wins in November, he would be the first Latino state Senator from the Valley and would add his name to the growing membership to the state’s Latino caucus.

Alarcon’s campaign received an infusion of cash in the final days of the campaign from state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), the chairman of the Latino caucus, who contributed $181,500 through a political action committee.