Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, continued to maintain his lead over Assemblywoman Christy Smith, D-Santa Clarita, in the close race for the seat in California’s 25th Congressional District (CA-25) despite the gap between the two narrowing on Tuesday.

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As of 2:48 p.m. Tuesday, Garcia’s 400-vote lead had narrowed down to an estimated 387 votes after a total of 471 votes from Los Angeles County were counted. 

Garcia had previously declared victory on Friday evening, stating that “with only a few remaining ballots to be counted, victory is clear.”

“I am honored by the supporters who voted for me and humbled by those who did not,” Garcia said in a statement issued Friday. “In the end, I will work hard for each and every one of you. And for our Nation.”

Later Friday night, Smith released a statement in response, calling Garcia’s declaration “dangerous to our democratic process.”

“The Congressman’s decision is wholly inappropriate, and disrespectful of those who have taken the time to vote this year,” she said. “Our county officials and Secretary of State Alex Padilla have done a phenomenal job of protecting every voter’s right to be heard in the most challenging election of our lifetime. We owe them and especially our voters our continued patience as the process is completed.”

When the first vote counts were reported at around 8:20 p.m. on Nov. 3, Smith held a larger lead over Garcia, as the first round of reporting came from Democratic-leaning vote-by-mail ballots.

However, as the voting center ballots have slowly continued to be reported, Garcia gradually closed that gap. 

Then, at around 7 p.m. on Nov. 5, state officials reported that Garcia took the lead over Smith, leading by 265 votes at the time. 

He expanded that lead during the Nov. 6 update to 432. However, Smith earned 1,719 more votes than Garcia in the Nov. 9 update, which placed her back in the lead by 1,287 votes.

See Related: UPDATE: Mike Garcia Declares Victory In Tight Congressional Race

Then, Garcia regained his lead the next day, as the Nov. 10 update had him ahead of Smith by 159 votes. He later expanded that lead to 219 after 454 more votes were counted from Ventura County on Thursday.

Smith began to close that gap the next day, when a 2,479-vote dump from Los Angeles County placed the two candidates at only 104 votes apart. 

However, the 2,241 votes counted from Los Angeles County and the 241 votes counted in Ventura County in Nov. 17’s update more than tripled the size of that gap.

That gap then narrowed slightly on Nov. 20, with an additional 2,241 votes from Los Angeles County placing Garcia and Smith within 400 votes of one another. 

The results as of Tuesday afternoon can be viewed below:

County officials across the state of California have until the beginning of December to report their final results to the state for the presidential race, while they have until Dec. 4 to report the results for all other races. The state then has one week from that deadline to certify the results of the 2020 election.

The next updated count from Los Angeles County is scheduled to be released Friday afternoon, while Los Angeles County is scheduled to certify their results on the following Monday.

For live election updates, click here.

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