It’s hard to turn your back on something that you’ve been working for so long.  And so, I imagine that is the case for Mary Salas. She has now asked for a partial recount of the votes.

Assemblywoman Mary Salas, D-San Diego, has requested a recount of ballots in San Diego and Riverside counties in hopes of overcoming a 22-vote deficit between her and Democrat Juan Vargas in the 40th Senate District.

San Diego Registrar Deborah Seiler confirmed that Salas made the request just before 5 p.m. Monday. Officials in Riverside said they also received a request to tally their ballots again.

The sprawling 40th District includes all of Imperial County and parts of Riverside and San Diego counties. San Diego was the only county where Salas outpolled Vargas. (CapWkly)

Now, there is some gamesmanship here. Not only was the request made right before the deadline, but Salas did not request a recount in Imperial County. For some reason, the law allows recounts county by county.  Salas won San Diego County, and came close in Riverside, while losing Imperial. So, the move to only request a recount in these two counties makes sense.

Now, for Vargas, the clock has expired on making the request for Imperial County.  He’s going to have to hope that his decision not to seek a recount in Imperial County will not come back to bite him.  It’s a little bit bizarre, but them’s the rules.

At this point, I don’t think we really know who is going to win this one. Results should trickle in, with the finally tally hopefully before the end of next week.