Democrat Derek Tran leads Rep. Michelle Steel, a Seal Beach Republican, by 519 votes in the race to represent California’s 45th congressional district, according to the tally released Friday evening from the Orange County Registrar of Voters.
Tran, an Orange-based attorney, gained 59 votes over Steel in the latest count, which was limited to the Orange County section of the district. The Los Angeles County section of the district — which accounts for about 10% of CA-45 — did not report a new tally late Friday. The next vote count from Los Angeles County is expected Nov. 26.
The margin remains narrow enough for either candidate to take the lead, but recent vote counts have shown Tran consistently pulling ahead of Steel. Both candidates have asked donors for money to finance a possible recount.
In central Orange County, the district includes Westminster, Garden Grove, Cypress, Buena Park and parts of Brea, Fullerton and Yorba Linda. It also includes a small portion of Los Angeles County, covering Artesia, Cerritos and Hawaiian Gardens.
County elections officials will continue tabulating votes in the coming days and have until Dec. 3 to certify the election results.
The CA-45 race remains one of the closest House contests in the country that has yet to be called. The race’s razor-thin margin — and California’s slow ballot counting process — has drawn widespread attention nationwide, including from political observers and right-wing agitators, some of whom have leveled claims of election fraud and amplified those allegations.
While Republicans have already secured control of the presidency, Senate and House, this district remains a key target for Democrats eager to reclaim a seat they lost in 2020.
As votes are being counted, both campaigns are also working to ensure that voters with flagged ballots — due to issues such as missing signatures or incorrect information — have their votes counted through a process known as “ballot curing.”
When a ballot is “cured,” the voter is contacted and allowed to fix the problem before the ballot is counted. Voters, however, are not allowed to change their original vote.
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