Van Duyne leads Valenzuela as counting continues of defective Tarrant County ballots
FORT WORTH, Texas - One North Texas congressional race still had not been called as of Wednesday evening -- the District 24 contest between Beth Van Duyne and Candace Valenzuela.
Van Duyne, the Republican, is ahead by about 4,600 votes with 99 percent of the vote counted. However, a mail-in ballot problem in Tarrant County is holding up the process.
District 24 includes parts of Dallas and Denton counties, which Valenzuela won. But it also includes Tarrant County, where Van Duyne has a sizeable lead. Tarrant is also still counting absentee and defective ballots that had issues with printed barcodes from a vendor.
The morning after Election Day, a smiling Van Duyne posted a picture on her Twitter page with the caption "Breakfast of Champions. #TX24."
Late Tuesday she thanked supporters at a watch party for her apparent win.
“The group that's going to carry this over, it's going to be Tarrant County. You guys get it,” Van Duyne said.
But Valenzuela's campaign is waiting on the final results from Tarrant County before conceding the election.
“This race is too close to call and thousands of votes are still being counted. Our campaign is committed to a full and complete count of all ballots so that every vote is counted and every voice is heard,” Valenzuela's campaign manager said on Wednesday in a statement.
As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, the Tarrant County Elections office had received 69,941 absentee ballots. Of that number, approximately 20-25% are projected to be defective, according to the election's administrator. Those ballots will need to be reprocessed.
Valenzuela's campaign pointed out that Ballots mailed by military personnel and voters overseas will be counted if they arrive before the close of business on November 9.
Valenzuela has declined any interviews until all of the Tarrant County ballots are counted.
In a statement, Van Duyne's campaign is calling on Valenzuela to concede.
“There is currently no path for Candace Valenzuela to catch up to our lead. Even in the highly unlikely situation all outstanding 14,000 absentee ballots in Tarrant County are from our district, Beth still wins,” a spokesperson said.
The Tarrant County Elections office says the ballots affected by the barcode error will continue to be properly duplicated and every vote cast will be counted as each voter intended.
There’s no timeframe on when that final count will be in.
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Beth Van Duyne leads Candace Valenzuela in tight race for U.S. House District 24