Republican Rep. Darrell Issa’s lead over Democratic Challenger Doug Applegate has shrunk slightly, according to a new updated vote count.

Issa has 51 percent of the vote to 49 percent for Applegate, said to the Secretary of State’s website Friday night. That’s a shift of one-tenth of a percent to Applegate from the previous update.

The raw tally gives Issa 100,934 votes to 96,830 for Applegate.

The district includes portions of San Diego and Orange counties and registrars from both are continuing to count hundreds of thousands of provisional as well as late-arriving vote-by-mail ballots. It’s not known how many of those ballots are from the 49th Congressional District.


Applegate led in the San Diego area, which accounts for about 75 percent of the district. Issa was wining by a larger margin in the Orange County portions of the district.

Issa has said he is confident his lead will hold, while Applegate said that there are too many votes left to be counted to determine the winner.

Registrars in both counties are verifying and counting ballots and have 30 days from the election on Tuesday to complete their work. Employees are working extended hours and weekends, and both counties are updating results regularly.

The Issa-Applegate race was one of the most-followed in the country as Democrats saw a chance to not only pick up a seat in the House but defeat Issa, a frequent critic of President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.


Issa finished the June primary with 50.8 percent of the vote to Applegate’s 45.5 percent. Far-left candidate Ryan Wingo, an independent, received another 3.7 percent.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

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