The hotly contested race for California’s 11th congressional district is up for grabs, and Republican David Harmer is suing Contra Costa County over its method of verifying ballots.  McNerney has widened his lead from an election night margin of 121 votes. As of 9:04AM this morning, the Secretary of State’s office was reporting a mere 411 votes separating incumbent Congressman Jerry McNerney from Republican challenger David Harmer, at 83,751 to 83,310. Third party candidate David Christensen, of the American Independent party brings up the rear at 8,914.

Harmer filed suit this afternoon in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez, seeking the right of independent observers to challenge signatures on absentee ballots. Contra Costa is one of four counties partially represented in CD11 (see map at left). The three other counties, Alameda, San Joaquin, and Santa Clara, all allow observers to challenge ballot signatures, but Contra Costa Election Clerk Steve Weir says observers may only challenge the process of counting the ballots, and not the signatures themselves. To this reporter's eyes, Weir appears to misread the county’s written procedures, which state on page 3 under the heading 3. Challenges, that

“Ballots may be challenged for incompleteness, ambiguity, or other defects” (follow the link for the county's document on rules and procedures). 

McNerney is in his second term, having ousted Republican Richard Pombo from the seat in the Democratic midterm rush of 2006. The race is an important one for Republicans, seeking to gain some representation in the San Francisco Bay Area, a liberal stronghold. David Harmer  ran and lost to John Garamendi in the neighboring 10th CD in 2008. Recent polls had shown him running as much as six points ahead of McNerney (see story), and major polls had shown the race moving in his direction. The New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight Forecasts, for example, rated the chance of Harmer winning the seat at 68.1 percent.