In the highly competitive U.S. House race for California’s 45th Congressional District, a seat that represents parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties, the Associated Press still had not called the race as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, despite Democrat Derek Tran declaring himself the victor a day earlier. The incumbent, Republican Rep. Michelle Steel, also had not conceded as of early evening Tuesday.
As ballot counting dragged on three weeks after the Nov. 5 general election, Tran and Steel remained separated by 613 votes, or 0.2 percentage points, as of the most recent vote count.
Here are the latest tallies for some of the closest congressional, state legislative and city races in Los Angeles County. They’re based on updated vote counts from the L.A. County registrar or California Secretary of State offices and reflect results through shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday.
An estimated 3.79 million ballots have been counted in L.A. County as of Tuesday, according to the registrar’s office. The only ballots that remain to be processed are those pending voter response and signature verification or that are conditional ballots pending voter eligibility and verification.
The registrar’s next ballot count update will be Monday. The office will certify the election results on Tuesday.
LIVE ELECTION RESULTS: See a chart of the latest vote counts
Congressional District 45: Democratic challenger Derek Tran extended his lead over Republican Rep. Michelle Steel by another 32 votes since Monday — though the margin between them remained unchanged at 0.2 percentage points. Tran had 157,960 votes (50.1%) to Steel’s 157,347 votes (49.9%), according to the Secretary of State’s website.
This district represents voters in Hawaiian Gardens and Artesia in southeastern L.A. County, as well as northeastern Orange County.
If he wins, Tran, an attorney, would be the first Vietnamese American to represent the nation’s largest Vietnamese community in Congress.
Because of the tightness of the race, both Tran and Steel have asked donors to finance a possible recount.
State Senate District 35: Laura Richardson continued holding onto her lead, with 122,825 votes (50.56%) while Michelle Chambers had 120,109 votes (49.44%) — a difference of 2,716 votes. Although she remained ahead, Richardson’s lead slipped slightly — by 0.02 percentage points — since the county registrar’s last update on Thursday.
The winner in this Democrat-versus-Democrat race will replace term-limited state Sen. Steven Bradford. Richardson previously served on the Long Beach City Council, state Assembly, and U.S. House of Representatives while Chambers served on the Compton City Council.
Whoever wins will represent a district that includes Carson, San Pedro, Compton, West Compton, Gardena, Harbor City, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lennox, West Carson, Watts, Willowbrook, and Wilmington, plus parts of Inglewood, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Torrance.
Compton City Council: In Council District 1 race, incumbent Deidre Duhart was ahead of Jasper Jay Jackson by 18 votes. Duhart had 3,142 votes (50.14%) while Jackson had 3,124 votes (49.86%). Over the last several updates, Duhart’s lead has swung back and forth between 18 and 19 votes.
Covina-Valley Unified School District, Trustee Area 1: Incumbent board member Sue Maulucci appeared to lead challenger Steve Bennett by 39 votes.
Rowland Unified School District, Trustee Area 4: Ellen Park appeared to lead Yvette Romo by about 3 percentage points.
Irwindale: The three incumbents, Manuel Garcia, Mark Breceda and Larry Burrola, maintained their leads. Four candidates ran for three available City Council seats in an at-large election. All four candidates were separated by 75 votes, with challenger Marguerite Lopez-Sapien appearing to be in fourth place behind Burrola by 35 votes.
Baldwin Park City Council: In another at-large race, eight candidates vied for three available seats. Emmanuel Estrada, Daniel Damian and Manuel Lozano appeared to be the top three vote-getters, with current City Clerk Christopher Saenz running fourth behind Lozano by a little more than 3 percentage points.
South El Monte City Council: For one of two available seats on the City Council. Larry Rodriguez appeared to hold a lead of a little less than 2 percentage points, or 114 votes, over incumbent Councilmember Richard Angel.
Santa Fe Springs City Council: In the race for two seats on the City Council, incumbent Joe Angel Zamora was in second ahead of planning commissioner and businessman Gabriel Jimenez by about two percentage points or 205 votes. The top two vote-earners will complete the five-member council.
Baldwin Park Unified School District: Three incumbent board members, among eight candidates who ran for three available seats, appeared to be trailing Ricardo Vazques, Yvonne Juarez and Jose Mata. Incumbent Christina Lucero was the closest to retaining their seat but appeared to trail Mata by 2 percentage points, or 743 votes.
Mt. San Antonio College Community District, Measure V: Yes on a $750 million educational bond measure to fund new facilities at Mt. San Antonio College sat just above the 55% threshold for passage with 55.6% of the counted votes.
Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority, Measure PH: Measure PH asked voters to help the Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority fight wildfires and emergencies, protect wildlife habitats, prevent homeless encampments, and clean illegal dumping by approving a special tax of one cent per building square foot. The measure would raise $1.15 million with annual adjustments limited to 3% until ended by voters. As of Tuesday, the measure had about 68% approval. A two-thirds majority was needed to pass.
SCNG reporters Hanna Kang, Teresa Liu, Anissa Rivera and David Wilson contributed to this article.