Update 10:15 a.m. Wednesday: Justin Fareed campaign spokeswoman Christiana Purves released the following statement Tuesday night: “There are still a number of ballots left to count, and we look forward to receiving the results."
Original story: A week after Election Day, Republican 24th Congressional District candidate Justin Fareed narrowed his deficit by less than 1 percent but continues to lag behind his Democratic opponent by 6.8 percentage points. At least 61,000 district ballots remain to be counted.
As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the California secretary of state had Salud Carbajal leading Fareed 53.4 percent to 46.6 percent, or by 17,174 votes.
Carbajal ended election night about 7.6 percentage points ahead of Fareed.
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The 24th Congressional District includes all of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties and a sliver of northern Ventura County. As of Tuesday, San Luis Obispo County still had about 21,500 ballots outstanding, with another count scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Santa Barbara County had about 39,700 ballots remaining with an updated count also scheduled for Wednesday.
A representative for the Ventura County Clerk-Recorder's Office said about 89,000 ballots remained to be counted there, but a vast majority of those ballots are from voters outside the 24th District. Ventura County is scheduled to complete an updated count Friday.
According to figures from each respective county clerk, Fareed bested Carbajal in San Luis Obispo County 51 percent to 48.9 percent, Carbajal carried Santa Barbara County 56.8 to 43.1 percent, and Carbajal led Fareed 59.7 to 40.2 percent in Ventura County.
Last Wednesday, Fareed’s campaign issued a statement saying the candidate was not ready to concede with about 100,000 ballots still to be counted. Fareed’s campaign spokeswoman, Christiana Purves, did not return requests for comment on updated counts Monday or Tuesday.
Fareed, whose use of Twitter during the campaign earned him about 800 followers, has been silent on social media since Friday.
Matt Fountain: 805-781-7909, @MattFountain1
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