Kristine Reeves takes thirteen vote lead over Teri Hickel in 30th District House race

Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Kris­tine Reeves has regained a nar­row lead over Repub­li­can incum­bent Teri Hick­el in the con­test for 30th LD State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Posi­tion 2, as of the com­ple­tion of the fourth tab­u­la­tion of bal­lots since Elec­tion Night.

On Fri­day, Hick­el had a lead of just two votes, with a total of 9,009 votes to Reeves’ 9,007. Reeves had been ahead in the ini­tial two counts on Tues­day and Wednes­day of last week, but was over­tak­en by Hick­el in the Thurs­day count.

Hick­el’s sev­en­ty-one vote lead last­ed all of twen­ty-four hours, and now it’s com­plete­ly gone, with Reeves hav­ing won back a small lead of her own.

Who wins is incon­se­quen­tial for the pur­pos­es of qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the Novem­ber bal­lot, because the Top Two is an elec­tion that pro­duces two win­ners — and Reeves and Hick­el were the only peo­ple who filed to run House, Posi­tion 2 in the 30th. They’ve both been guar­an­teed a spot on the Novem­ber bal­lot since the close of Fil­ing Week back in May. And they are so close togeth­er in this beau­ty con­test that the race can be called a text­book case of a dead heat.

Regard­less, there is a sym­bol­ic vic­to­ry to be won here. Who­ev­er emerges as the can­di­date with the most votes at the end of count­ing will be able to declare on the cam­paign trail from now until Novem­ber 8th that they received the most votes in the first round. Sym­bol­ic vic­to­ries are use­ful for ener­giz­ing sup­port­ers and donors.

Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans are watch­ing the con­test between Reeves and Hick­el close­ly (along with the con­test between Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Mike Pel­lic­ciot­ti and Repub­li­can incum­bent Lin­da Kochmar for the oth­er House posi­tion) because it’s in the 30th that con­trol of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives could well be decided.