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Two U.S. House races remain uncalled

Two U.S. House races were decided by fewer than a dozen votes. They are two of the closest House elections in decades.

In New York's 22nd Congressional District, Claudia Tenney (R) leads Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D) by 12 votes with more than 800 disputed ballots not included in the official counts. Oswego County Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte has blocked county election boards from certifying Tenney as the winner, pending the resolution of legal proceedings.
In Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, state election officials certified Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) as the winner by a margin of six votes. Runner-up Rita Hart (D) announced she would contest the results before the U.S. House's Administration Committee.

Congressional elections this close are rare, but what about state and local elections?

In 2018, 16 state legislative races were decided by 10 votes or fewer. Two races in 2018 were decided by a single vote: the election for District 1 of the Alaska House of Representatives and the election for District 13 of the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Fewer than 10 votes

Overall, 1,894 elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope in 2018 were decided by a margin of 10 percentage points or fewer, including primaries where candidates won election outright.

This included 105 congressional races, 1,217 state-level contests, and 572 local elections.
The closest U.S. Senate election in 2018 was Sen. Rick Scott's (R) defeat of incumbent Bill Nelson (D) in Florida by 10,033 votes out of more than 8 million cast—a margin of 0.12 percentage points. The closest 2018 U.S. House race was in Georgia's 7th Congressional District, where incumbent Rob Woodall (R) defeated Carolyn Bourdeaux (D) by 433 votes or 0.15 percentage points.
One-hundred and five of the 6,073 state legislative races in 2018 were decided by fewer than 100 votes. Partisan control changed in 54 of the 105 races. Most of the races took place in districts with small population sizes compared to the rest of the country.
Seventy-eight races—74%—were in districts with a population of less than 25,000.

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Kansas governor names new lieutenant governor

A little state government musical chairs is taking place in Kansas.

On Nov. 3, Kansas state treasurer Jacob LaTurner (R) won election to the U.S. House to represent Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District.
On Dec. 10, Governor Laura Kelly (D) announced she would appoint Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers (D) as the new state treasurer.
On Dec. 14, Kelly announced she would appoint state commerce secretary David Toland as the new lieutenant governor.

The new officeholders will be sworn in to their respective roles in January.

Changes

Toland will continue serving as commerce secretary after he becomes lieutenant governor. Rogers will serve as treasurer until 2022, when all elected state executive offices, including the governor, are up for election. Kelly’s appointments of Toland and Rogers do not require state legislative confirmation.

Toland will be the 52nd person to serve as Kansas’ lieutenant governor. Of the previous five officeholders dating back to 2007, two were gubernatorial appointees, and three were elected.

Rogers will be the 41st Kansas state treasurer and the sixth Democrat to assume the position. Of the previous 40 treasurers dating back to 1859, 33 were Republican, five were Democrat, and two were Populist.

Kansas is one of 26 states in which the lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor. In eight of these states, there are separate primaries for governor and lieutenant governor, with the winning candidate in each primary appearing on the general election taicket. In the remaining 18 states, gubernatorial candidates may pick their own running mates in a similar fashion to presidential candidates.

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Last day to vote for your favorite holiday cookie

Voting ends tonight for the 2020 Official Holiday Cookie. Have you cast your ballots yet? Exit polling on the early vote shows a tight race, so be sure to vote for the cookie you want to represent the holidays!

If no cookie reaches a majority tonight, tomorrow we’ll introduce the top two finalists for a runoff election. This delicious race will ultimately end with the final winner announced on Dec. 23.

While we won’t have the play by play for the campaigning for this runoff election, we do have it for the congressional elections taking place in Georgia! Click here to be instantly subscribed to the Runoff Report, and get an in-depth daily review of the races.

> Vote now for your favorite holiday cookie

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