Stacy Korsgaden holding slim lead over Adam Hill in SLO County District 3 Supervisors race, thousands of ballots still to be counted
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Stacy Korsgaden continues to hold a slim lead in her bid to unseat longtime San Luis Obispo County District 3 Supervisor Adam Hill.
Numbers did not change Wednesday after a final reporting at 11:15 p.m. the night before.
With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, challenger Korsgaden has a narrow 304 vote advantage over incumbent Hill.
Korsgaden, a Grover Beach insurance agent, currently has 6,947 (51%) votes, while Hill, who has served as a supervisor since 2009, has 6,643 (48.7%).
"I'm very excited," said Korsgaden. I had a great night last night. Knowing that we're in the lead right now, it's very exciting and we're looking forward to representing, if given the chance after all the votes are counted."
Despite having all precincts reporting, the race is far from over.
"There are a lot of vote-by-mail ballots that we are processing," said San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong. "We're doing the signature check on them, and I would estimate at least 20,000 ballots for us to process. It just takes longer to process a large quantity of vote-by-mail ballots, so the signature checking, the opening process, the feeding of the ballots through the machine, it takes a while to complete that."
Gong added that an updated vote total will not come out until Friday at the earliest.
He also said about 4,000 ballots arrived by mail on Wednesday, with many more expected over the next couple of days.
"We want to do it right and do it accurately and that takes time," said Gong. "We can't speed up the process any more than we're allowed to by law. There are certain requirements that we have to fulfill when we conduct the canvas of the vote."
In addition to approximately 20,000 vote-by-mail ballots, Gong also mentioned there are many provisional ballots that still need to be counted.
"(They) were cast at the polls on Election Day where voter eligibility wasn't determined," said Gong. "We have about 3,100 of those ballots, and so those will go through the adjudication process after shown they didn't vote at the polls or their vote-by-mail ballot wasn't returned."
The close race is reminiscent of the District 4 election two years ago.
In that race, incumbent Lynn Compton beat challenger Jimmy Paulding by a mere 55 votes.
It took 17 days for the result to be certified.
Gong said final certification must come no later than 30 days after Election Day, which would be April 2.
"The American process is exciting and I appreciate everybody that took the time to go out and vote, and ultimately my hope is that I will be elected to represent the County of San Luis Obispo," said Korsgaden. "It would be a great honor and a privilege and I look forward to the opportunity."
If Korsgaden were to win the race, she would not take office until Jan. 1, 2021.
NewsChannel 12 reached out to Adam Hill, asking for an opportunity to hear his reaction to the close race, but did not receive a reply.
