Modesto nursery owner John Duarte is continuing to inch closer to a victory in the open, north Valley-centric 13th Congressional District.
San Joaquin County posted 3,270 votes late Tuesday night, which included 120 in the 13th district.
Duarte was already leading Asm. Adam Gray (D–Merced) by 593 votes as the counting nears a closure.
Tuesday’s update broke in favor of Duarte by a 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent, netting him six votes.
Duarte now leads with 66,871 votes compared to Gray’s 66,215 – a 50.2 to 49.8 percent lead.
Stanislaus, Merced and Madera Counties have all certified their elections.
Duarte’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment before publication time.
With its latest ballot drop, San Joaquin County has just 1,372 votes left to count. Less than five percent of the ballots counted so far in San Joaquin County are in the 13th District, which could leave around 70 ballots left to add to the race.
Fresno County has yet to certify its election results and is scheduled to update its latest batch of ballots on Friday, with an estimated 2,600 ballots remaining to be counted.
During its update prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, Fresno County processed 19,600, of which just 8 percent – 1,604 ballots – were in the 13th Congressional District.
For Gray to be able to retake a lead, the share of remaining Fresno County votes within the 13th Congressional District would likely have to reach between 35 and 50 percent to deliver a lead change.
