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After steadily picking up votes in the week the Election Day, State Assembly member Evan Low is now leading Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian by 63 votes in the highly watched race for Congress, the latest results how.
Both Simitian and Low trail former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, who held a commanding lead with 21.5% of the votes in the 16th Congressional District as of 4:30 p.m. on March 12. But Simitian, who enjoyed a lead of 17.9% to 15.9% over Low on the night of the primary election, saw his edge evaporate a week later.
After steadily narrowing the gap, Low completely wiped it out by the evening of March 13, when the latest results showed both candidates with 16.7% of the votes. Low had received 29,431 while Simitian had 29,372, with thousands of ballots left to count in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The situation remained relatively unchanged Friday, with Low leading by 63 votes, 29,440 to 29,377.
Most of the Low’s momentum came from Santa Clara County, which includes Low’s hometown of Campbell, where he served as mayor. Low also received significant support from nearby cities of Saratoga and Los Gatos, while Simitian did particularly well in Palo Alto, Mountain View and Menlo Park.
While Simitian has been in second place every day since March 5, his advantage has steadily gone down, dropping to 739 votes as of early Tuesday morning and to 162 as of late afternoon, making the race a virtual tossup. That changed on March 13, when Low leapfrogged over Simitian in the razor-thin race.
According to the San Jose Spotlight, Low has received a boost from ballots that were mailed or dropped off on primary election day in Santa Clara County. These voters tend to be younger, more progressive and people of color — voters more likely to choose a young Asian American like Low, Brian Parvizshahi, founder of political consulting firm Axial Media and Communications, told the Spotlight.
“There is a world where Evan can come back,” Parvizshahi told San José Spotlight earlier this week, as Simitian’s lead was shrinking. “It came down to the moderate candidates cannibalizing each other, like Liccardo, Simitian, Peter Dixon and Peter Ohtaki, which allows Evan, who’s much more progressive, to close the gap.”
The top two vote-getters will advance to the Nov. 5 general election for a change to succeed U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, who has represented the Silicon Valley district for the past three decades.
Both counties have until April 12 to have their results certified. Candidates will also have an opportunity to request a recount if the final results prove to be very close.
San Jose Spotlight contributed to this report.
Any idea how many more votes remain to be counted, and what the deadline for receiving them is?
Ballots had to be mailed by Election Day. They had to be received by 3/12.
If Low passes Simitian, it will be one of the biggest miscalculations in local election history. There were 3 candidates that invested far more in the campaign than Simitian and they all took votes away from Simitian. He may have saved too much of his resources for the general election.