Down in the 40th Senate district, every vote mattered.  And as of the latest tally, it looks like Business-Dem Juan Vargas will sneak through the primary with a 22 vote victory over Asm. Mary Salas. 22 Votes.

Ahead by 22 votes, former Assemblyman Juan Vargas  has declared victory over Assemblywoman Mary Salas  in the 40th Senate District Democratic primary.

Salas, who led in early returns, had declared victory in the days following the election. But with the final outstanding votes counted, Vargas is ahead 24,282 votes to 24,260 votes, according to county returns.

“It’s been a long road, but we’ve reached the finish line tonight,” he said in a statement.

The final boost came from a count of more than 12,500 Riverside County ballots that had inadvertently been left at a post office on Election Day. A Riverside judge ordered last week that the county include those ballots in its final results. The county has until Thursday to certify the results.(SacBee)

Salas can request a recount, but it is neither automatic nor state-funded.  Furthermore, Sen. Darrell Steinberg, who vigorously supported Salas, has indicated that he would not be funding such a recount. However, with such a narrow margin of victory, a change due to a recount is not out of the realm of possibility. With simple random error, it is hardly difficult to achieve a 22 vote mistake over the course of about 50,000 votes. If I hear anything of a recount fundraising effort, I’ll be sure to pass that along.

Vargas, a former Assembly Democrat, was heavily supported by insurance and other corporate types.  Vargas also voted NO on Mark Leno’s marriage equality bills while in the Assembly.  In an ideal world, Salas would have pulled the squeaker out, but now it looks like we’ll deal with Vargas for the next few years. It’s hardly the end of the world, but it’s always tough to lose one like that.