Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, Democratic candidate for Utah's 4th congressional district, takes a photo with supporter Dave Iltis at an election night event for the Utah Democratic Party at the Radisson in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. McAdams' race against incumbent Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, remained too-close-to-call at the end of the night. (Spenser Heaps, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — There are still days of ballot counting left to call the official winner in Utah’s Fourth Congressional District Race, a too-close-to-call contest between Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams and Rep. Mia Love, the former mayor of Saratoga Springs.
Early Wednesday morning, Democrat McAdams led 51.3 to 48.6 over Republican incumbent Love. But thousands of ballots remain uncounted, especially in Utah County.
McAdams said he expects to have to wait until Friday, or possibly even into next week, to have enough ballots processed to know for sure who won the race.
“[I’m] cautiously optimistic,” he said. “The numbers in Salt Lake County are strong. We got strong support. We’re hoping to continue that support into Utah County, and Sanpete and Juab County. And we’ll know within a few days I think.”
GOP Rep. Mia Love with supporters at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lehi on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (Steve Griffin, Deseret News)
Love was also expecting to wait it out.
“I’m optimistic about it but I am certainly going to wait until we get all of those numbers before we do anything but I feel fairly confident that this is going to work out,” she said.
Love can lose in Salt Lake County and still win the election — as long as she gets those crucial votes from Utah County, which is what happened when she won back in 2014. Traditionally, Utah County swings Republican, while Salt Lake County swings toward the Democratic party.
County clerks are expected to give another update on results later on Wednesday and throughout the week, but the official canvass is not until November 20th, when the state lieutenant governor’s office certifies the results of the elections.
“We knew this was going to take a while. There’s still tens of thousands of votes that are out there but if you look at the trajectory we feel really good,” said Love.
“I think it’s going to take a few days before we know the outcome of this election, but if we win… This will be a win for people over politics,” said McAdams.
