The final counting is underway in the race for New Jersey's 3rd Congressional District seat in the House of Representatives, but what will happen once the final tallies are in remains uncertain.

Democrat Andy Kim leads incumbent Republican Tom MacArthur by 3,478 votes, according to the unofficial totals posted on the Burlington County and Ocean County election websites. Kim has 150,495 to 147,017 for MacArthur, as of 4 p.m. Tuesday. Those totals include mail-in ballots received through Nov. 8, the deadline for those postmarked by Nov. 6, but they do not include provisional ballots that were cast Nov. 6 by voters who received mail-in ballots they had not requested.

Kim declared victory on Nov. 7, even as mail-in ballots remained to be counted. "With the vast majority of votes now in and counted and based on the numbers we saw from Burlington County today, we have built a substantial lead," Kim said in an announcement at his Mount Laurel campaign headquarters. "I am proud to announce that we have won."



MacArthur, however, has not conceded. "This has been a hard fought campaign and like Andy Kim, I'm ready to see it come to an end," MacArthur said in a statement posted to Facebook on Nov. 7. "I have always said that I will be guided by the voters of the district and there are nearly 7,000 more of them who haven't been heard from yet. We must ensure that their votes — and all votes — are counted in a transparent way that protects the integrity of this election."



There were approximately 2,400 provisional ballots in Ocean County and about 4,000 in Burlington, the NJ.com report said.

"We're examining our options while the votes are being counted," said Chris Russell, MacArthur's campaign strategist, of what might be done once those final tallies are in. "No decisions yet" on whether MacArthur would concede or seek a recount if Kim retains his current lead. Zack Carroll, Kim's campaign manager, was steadfast as well.