Politics & Government

Kim Continues To Lead Richter In NJ's 3rd Congressional District

Updated unofficial tallies from Burlington and Ocean counties have Andy Kim still leading by 34,000 votes over David Richter.

Democrat Andy Kim continued to lead Republican David Richter in the race for New Jersey's 3rd Congressional District seat.
Democrat Andy Kim continued to lead Republican David Richter in the race for New Jersey's 3rd Congressional District seat. (Photos provided by Andy Kim, David Richter campaigns)

NEW JERSEY — Election officials in Burlington and Ocean counties updated vote totals on Thursday in the race for New Jersey's 3rd Congressional District, and incumbent Democrat Andy Kim continues to lead Republican David Richter.

The unofficial results have Kim with 190,200 votes, including 122,012 in Burlington County and 68,188 in Ocean County. Richter has 156,161 votes, including 65,586 in Burlington County and 90,575 in Ocean County.

Those totals give Kim a lead of more than 34,000 votes, both counties still have ballots to be counted.

Find out what's happening in Toms Riverfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Ocean County, which updated results Thursday morning, added just shy of 20,000 votes to its countywide tallies, meaning there are still more than 29,000 ballots to be counted.

Burlington County, which issued its update Thursday afternoon, has more than 43,000 votes to be counted, according to Dave Levinsky from the county's public information office.

Find out what's happening in Toms Riverfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Those numbers do not include provisional ballots cast on Tuesday, which will not be counted until after Nov. 19, the deadline for ballots that were mailed to arrive at the Board of Elections offices.

Neither candidate has acknowledged a declaration by the Associated Press on Tuesday night that named Kim the winner. Kim's lead is nearly 10 times the nearly 4,000 votes that divided him and Tom MacArthur when Kim won in 2018. Read more: Kim Wins In NJ's 3rd Congressional District: AP

"There are still some more ballots to count before we know for sure," Kim said Wednesday evening in a tweet. "We see right now across our nation the critical importance of ensuring we get this right. Our democracy depends on it." Read more: Kim, Richter Still Waiting On NJ 3rd District Vote Tallies

Kim's 2018 victory made him the first Democrat to hold the seat since John Adler was defeated by Republican Jon Runyan in the 2010 election. Adler held the seat for one term; before Adler, the seat was held by H. James Saxton for 16 years.

Click here to get Patch email notifications, or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our app. Download here. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Toms River Patch on Facebook.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.