After weeks of anticipation and counting votes, California's 16th Congressional District race to replace Anna Eshoo took an unexpected turn on Wednesday as both second-place candidates tied in the unofficial final results.
It was a tie between Assemblymember Evan Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian.
The candidate who had the most votes for second place was supposed to face off with former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo in the November Election. Liccardo secured the first place spot in the race.
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The 16th Congressional District is made up of portions of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
But officials in both counties said Wednesday that all of the ballots were counted. Both counties also had low voter turnout.
“It means a lot of people decided to pass on it. Any one of them, any one of them could have made a difference had they chosen to vote on that day,” said political analyst Larry Gerston.
During an election, counties sometimes receive ballots that don’t have a signature or the signature does not match the one they have on file. The ballots go through a ballot curing process, where voters have the chance to fix the issue. In San Mateo County, they can do so up to 30 days after election day.
“They were doing that all the way up to yesterday when we received one ballot at about 3:45 p.m.,” said Jim Irizarri, assistant chief elections officer with San Mateo County. “That was the last cured ballot we had received, and we processed it and we reported it today and that was the ballot that tied the election.”
As of Wednesday night, it was still an unofficial tie. The results need to get certified and then reported to the Secretary of State on Thursday.
But there could be three candidates on the November ballot or Low or Simitian could request a recount, which they would have to pay for.
“I think one thing they might consider, nobody’s asked me, but they might consider, splitting the cost. There’s a lot to gain by running with two [candidates] instead of three. With two, you need a majority. With three, you need a plurality. That means the person that gets more than anybody else wins. You’re gambling a lot,” Gerston said.
Gerston also pointed out a couple of other things, including Liccardo getting 21% of the vote. While Simitian and Low each got 16% of the votes.
The rest was split among the other candidates, it was a long list and the candidates would have to be fighting for, plus voter turnout is expected to be increase in the November general election. There are a lot of votes up for grabs.
NBC Bay Area reached out to both Simitian and Low on Wednesday, but they did not provide a comment.
