With Kamala Harris (D) leading Steve Cooley (R) by just over 30,000 in the epic vote count to determine California's next Attorney General, the campaigns are engaged in heated exchanges over provisional ballots.
It's coming down to a sleazy attempt by the Cooley camp to eliminate as many provisional ballots as possible in Los Angeles County where Cooley lost by 14%.
The Harris camp, feeling cautiously optimistic with its slight edge, is countering with charges of voter disenfranchisement.
The odds are increasing this race will be decided in court.
The Redlands Daily Facts reports:
While 8 million Californians voted in the state's attorney general's race, about 300 Los Angeles County election workers will decide the fate of a race "too close to call."
That's if the candidates, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley and San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, don't end up settling the election in court.
The Cooley camp's dogs are attacking the LA County election workers:
Cooley observers have cried foul over the election officials' practice of calling voters to correct inaccuracies in their registration and then counting those votes.
"How do we know the people they were reaching are the actual voters, and how do you count those votes after the election has been held?" asked Tyler Ayers, the political director of the Cooley campaign.
The Harris camp countered, asserting that Cooley's tactics are nothing less than voter disenfranchisement:
"They’re trying to get as many provisional ballots not counted as possible," says [Harris spokesman Brian] Brokaw.
That's of course because more Democrats cast ballots provisionally. They also charged Cooley representatives of crowding counters.
As for the LA County Clerk/Registrar-Recorder's Office (responsible for the vote counting) take?
"The important thing to note is that no special rubric has been created," said Efraim Escobedo, the executive liaison for the County Clerk/Registrar- Recorder's Office. "These are established standards for decades."
Registrar spokesman Escobedo says the office is treating each side fairly and is addressing concerns that observers are getting too close to the more than 200 elections workers involved in the process. He says no one has interfered with that process so far.
"We are very sensitive to that, and are continually communicating with our staff and have not had staff who say they are not able to do their job."
As Kamala Harris fights to prevail in the all important CA-AG race, she is in a political cat-fight with the GOP's continuing tradition of voter disenfranchisement. Meanwhile, in spite of Cooley's attacks, the LA County Clerk/Registrar bobs and weaves taking the moral high ground. Way to hold your ground Harris and LA County - when all's said and done I have a feeling we'll see Harris in Sacramento come January and Cooley back in LA as DA - sending his apologies to his "friends" over at the Clerk/Registrar's Office.