With fewer than 600 votes seperating incumbent Vincent Orange and challenger Sekou Biddle, the race for the Democratic nomination to the D.C. Council’s at-large seat is still too close to call Wednesday morning.
Orange, who won the seat in a 2010 special election, leads Biddle, a former councilman, 21,237 votes to 20,694, or 39.77 percent to 38.75 percent, according to unofficial returns. However, at least 1,700 provisional and absentee ballots have yet to be counted, leaving the race up for grabs.
An automatic recount of the results would be triggered if the margin between the candidates are less than 1 percent, according to the District Board of Elections and Ethics. The margin is currently 1.02 percent and there’s no word yet from the board on whether that would warrant an automatic recount.
After a long night, both campaigns remained silent early Wednesday. Observers say it would be premature for Orange to declare a victory with such a small margin in the unofficial count.
