California Democrats were already happy with the midterm results when they went to bed on election night to dreams of Nancy Pelosi holding the speaker’s gavel. And in the week since, while officials have counted millions of mailed-in and provisional ballots, the party faithful have found themselves even more elated as they’ve picked off more U.S. House and state legislative seats.

The contours of California’s blue wave have come into focus with each new vote tally. On Tuesday night, Democratic candidate Josh Harder, a former venture capital investor, defeated GOP Rep. Jeff Denham in the Modesto-area 10th district, leading Denham by 4,919 votes or 2.62 percent of all votes counted.

Harder, whose campaign was boosted by hundreds of Bay Area volunteers who trekked to the Central Valley, is the fourth pickup for Golden State Democrats so far in races that were all too close to call on election night: environmental lawyer Mike Levin, nonprofit executive Katie Hill and businessman Harley Rouda are also headed to Washington, D.C. The biggest coup for the party was Rouda’s victory over Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher, who’s represented Orange County for three decades and is known for his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Two congressional races are still up in the air. In the Orange County’s Irvine-area 45th district, Democratic law professor Katie Porter pulled ahead of Republican Rep. Mimi Walters by 261 votes Tuesday night — a razor-thin margin of 0.2 percent. On election night, Walters led Porter by more than 3 percent.

And Republican Former State Assemblywoman Young Kim leads Democratic lottery winner and Navy veteran Gil Cisneros in the 39th district, an immigrant-heavy strip of suburbia spanning Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties, although she’s only ahead by 711 votes, or 0.38 percent. Her lead has tightened from about 3 percent on election night.

Other races that remain uncalled include the nonpartisan contest for superintendent of public education, in which labor-backed State Assemblyman Tony Thurmond leads charter school supporter Marshall Tuck by 68,931 votes, a 0.8 percent gap. Tuck was up on election night by more than 1.5 percent.

In the congressional races, the vote tallies have mostly swung Democratic with each new update — a trend political observers say is due to Democratic voters being more likely to cast their ballots on election day or mail them in at the last minute, instead of voting early.

California Democrats typically gain between one and two percentage points over the course of the vote-counting process, said Paul Mitchell, the vice president of nonpartisan data firm Political Data, Inc.

“This is the same thing we’ve seen in California elections for decades,” he said.

Already, the Democratic wins have reshuffled California’s political map, cutting the state’s Republican congressional delegation from 14 to 11, with the possibility of their numbers falling to single digits. Orange County — which Ronald Reagan once described as the place “where the good Republicans go to die” — will have at most two GOP U.S. representatives come January and possibly none, down from four going into the election.

As of noon Tuesday, there were still more than 3.6 million ballots left to count statewide, according to the Secretary of State’s latest tally, although it’s unclear how many are left in each of the competitive districts. Don’t hold your breath for the final results — counties don’t have to certify their vote totals until Dec. 7.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this drags on a couple other weeks at least,” said Nic Jordan, the campaign manager for Cisneros. He said his team was optimistic about their chances: “With every update, slowly but surely, the gap is closing.”

Kim’s campaign insisted that their lead would hold, arguing in a statement that any new vote totals differing significantly from those showing her lead “could reflect foul play.” The campaign didn’t provide any evidence of potential foul play.

Democrats also won a supermajority in the State Senate and expanded their supermajority in the State Assembly, making it easier for governor-elect Gavin Newsom to enact progressive policies without needing to haggle with the GOP caucus. State Assemblywoman Catharine Baker — one of the few Republican elected officials left in the Bay Area — is leading her Democratic challenger Rebecca Bauer-Kahan by just 526 votes, or 0.3 percent, in her East Bay district. That’s down from a 3 percent lead on election night.

And Democrats have also seen other late wins declared in their favor around the country, including the Arizona Senate race and a handful of close House races. If the uncalled California House contests go their way, Democrats may be able to reach 40 seats flipped across the country — giving Pelosi, D-San Francisco, a cushier margin as she corrals support in her bid for the speakership.

“By any measure, Democrats had a very big night in California — and that night has extended into the following weeks,” said Bill Burton, a Democratic strategist in Los Angeles who worked on several congressional campaigns this year.

President Trump has rained furious tweets down on election officials in Florida for their sluggish ballot count, raising the prospect of voter fraud even though state officials have said there’s zero evidence for that claim. But so far, he’s avoided commenting on California’s vote-counting process.

Related Articles As late ballot counts swing left, Orange County could wind up with no GOP representatives in Washington

Another Dem pickup: Harder ousts Denham in Central Valley

Late vote counts: New results, plus the five House and Senate seats that remain undecided The state takes such a long time to count in part simply because there are a lot of votes to count. Each county does its own tally, and some counties are dealing with more registered voters than many states.

California’s laws are also aimed at making it as easy as possible for people to vote, letting voters send in their ballot on election day as long as it arrives at a county registrar within three days. This year, the state launched new reforms allowing residents to register to vote on Election Day and letting voters return their mail-in ballot at any polling place in the state, even outside the county, said Sam Mahood, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office.

“There’s nothing abnormal about the vote-counting process here,” Mahood said. “We’d rather take the time, get it right, and make sure every vote is counted.”