Juan Vargas is clinging to a 12-vote lead over Assemblywoman Mary Salas, but there are still 12,500 disputed ballots in Riverside County that have not been counted — and may not ever be counted.Erica Felci reports it is unknown how many of those ballots, if any, are within SD 40.

“The Riverside County Democratic Party will ask a judge today to stop the county registrar from certifying the June 8 election results and demand the 12,500-plus late-arriving ballots get counted.

“The political party’s central committee filed legal action Wednesday on behalf of three Moreno Valley voters and 12,560 other “does” whose ballots arrived late. 

“They contend that the voters compiled with the election code by mailing their ballots on time and therefore should be counted. 

“The contested ballots, representing ZIP codes countywide, were sitting at a Moreno Valley post office but did not get delivered before the polls closed for the June 8 election.