The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.
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● CA-16: California will host its first-ever three-way House race of the top-two era this fall after final tallies showed two candidates finishing in an astonishing tie for second place.
While media outlets declared former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo the first-place finisher a week after the March 5 primary for California's open 16th District, Assemblyman Evan Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian traded leads as small as a single vote over the ensuing month. (All are Democrats.)
But after county officials certified returns on Thursday, both Low and Simitian wound up with exactly 30,249 votes. California does not conduct automatic recounts but instead requires candidates to request them—and pay for them. But neither Simitian nor Low has the incentive to ask for one lest they fall behind, and given the expense—likely several hundred thousand dollars—Liccardo has little reason to want one either.
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