Gaspar Closes Gap in Tight County Supervisor Race

Only 560 votes separate the two candidates

Encinitas Mayor Kristin Gaspar has closed in on Supervisor Dave Roberts in a tight race for a county supervisor seat, trailing the incumbent now by 560 votes, according to the latest tally Friday afternoon.

Political experts say the race may be too close to call for at least another week.

Countywide, there are more than 300,000 votes provisional ballots left to count.

If the provisional ballots are distributed evenly among the five county supervisor districts, that would be about 63,000 votes left to tally in the razor-close election between the Republican challenger and Democrat incumbent.

“I was really surprised to see that we are getting tightening results in this race,” said Vince Vasquez, an independent elections analyst. “Typically, what you see in San Diego are those late votes that come in from poll voters as well as late absentee votes, typically tend to be more progressive, more Democratic. Those are Roberts voters.”

But, in this case, late votes are swinging right, to the Republican.

“Statistically, right now, the trend is going in Gaspar’s direction,” said Gaspar’s campaign advisor, Jason Roe.

Roberts’ campaign strategist, Gary Gartner, said the number of votes left to count in the county supervisor race is around 50,000.

“We’re closely monitoring the results and optimistic that Supervisor Roberts will remain in the lead,” Gartner said.

Unseating an incumbent supervisor is virtually unheard of in San Diego County. Roberts won his seat in 2012 after County Supervisor Pam Slater Price retired.

In many of the ballots left to county, people wrote in a candidate for president, which means the machine can’t read them.

All of those now have to be counted by hand.

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