Democrat Emerson Levy has declared victory in the race for Oregon House District 53 after a new round of election results on Wednesday allowed her to increase her narrow lead over Republican Michael Sipe.
Deschutes County released about 4,800 more ballot results Wednesday afternoon.
Levy increased her lead from 278 votes to 412 over Sipe.
“House District 53, we did it! It is the honor of my life to be your next State Representative,” Levy said on Twitter.
In a blog post, Sipe said it was premature to declare victory.
“There are cries from the peanut gallery to ‘concede.’ Concession, quitting and giving up seems to be common in our culture today. It’s a concept that is strange to me,” Sipe wrote.
RELATED: Deschutes County Elections
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In another tight race, Democrat Morgan Schmidt cut into Republican incumbent Patti Adair’s lead in the race for Deschutes County Commissioner Position 3. But Adair still leads by more than 2,200 votes.
More ballots are expected to drop next week. Deschutes County says it will have everything wrapped up by Dec. 5 when it certifies the results.
(Editor’s note: The numbers in this story are are based on Deschutes County results, which were updated at 2:11 p.m. PST Wednesday. It was not reflected in the Oregon Secretary of State’s numbers, which were last updated at noon on Wednesday.
