Oakland mayor and Alameda County DA races remain undecided

OAKLAND - Ballots are still being counted in Alameda County from the 2022 election. Two key races there are tighter than ever. The registrar of voters released new numbers Monday late afternoon.  They're the first batch since Thursday.

In both the race for Oakland mayor and district attorney, the number of votes separating the candidates has dwindled. In the mayor's race, Councilmember Loren Taylor maintained a slim lead over Councilmember Sheng Thao.

As for the district attorney's race, veteran prosecutor Terry Wiley held razor-thin lead over civil rights attorney Pamela Price.  

A KTVU crew caught up with Wiley as he held his weekly Monday meeting with his volunteer campaign staff. On this night, it was held at Lake Chalet. They met to talk about the vote count and what's ahead.

"Trying to figure out how many votes are outstanding and where are those votes coming from," said Wiley.

Around 4:30 p.m., the registrar released updated election results. Wiley's lead is now just 1,914 votes over Price.  

"I wasn't that surprised. We felt all along that this was going to be a tight race and that the race would tighten up. But we're still very, very confident," said Wiley.

Price declined to be interviewed but issued a written statement, "As we expected, my opponent's lead is dwindling and we are confident that when all the ballots have been counted, I will be elected the next da of Alameda County. "

Tim Dupuis, the registrar, said workers spent the weekend sorting ballots to be counted. He said 50,000 more votes were counted Monday which left 150,000 ballots still outstanding. Dupuis said roughly half the total number of ballots has been counted. He said the large number of people now voting by mail is the reason why it takes longer to count votes.

"There's 930,000 voters. We only received 30,000 votes in person. The rest of the votes, if we get to 50 percent, are all vote by mail votes and most of those were dropped off on election night," said Dupuis.

In the Oakland mayor's race, Taylor led Thao by 2,677 votes.

He issued a statement, "Our lead in this race remains strong, and we’re confident in our position. We want to extend our thanks to the dedicated election workers who spent the weekend to ensure that a safe and fair election was conducted."

Thao responded to the latest vote count on social media, "This is a close race and we have a real shot at pulling through. I look forward to learning the final result as soon as every vote is counted."

Wiley and his campaign staff, like others with a stake in this election are waiting for final results

"Watching at where we are at this point in this election," said Wiley.

And of course, every candidate waiting for results is hoping for a victory.  The registrar said there may be definitive results in these close races Wednesday or Thursday.

Amber Lee is a reporter with KTVU. Email Amber at Amber.Lee@Fox.com or text/leave message at 510-599-3922. Follow her on Facebook @AmberKTVU,  Instagram @AmberKTVU  or Twitter @AmberKTVU