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California Attorney General Will Be...1 Of These 2

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — First, he was ahead. Then she pulled away with it. Then he crept back into the lead. Then she had it...solid. And was declared the winner by some. And he declared he was the winner. But...not so fast!

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KNX 1070's Chris Sedens Reports

The he won, she won, who won? race between Los Angeles Attorney General Steve Cooley vs. San Francisco Attorney General Kamala Harris for California State Attorney General is...still a nail biter.

More than a week after the election, we/they/officials/anybody!? still doesn't know who won. Officially.

They're still counting more than 900,000 absentee ballots that arrived on time, but late. (Huh!?)

IF that makes sense. The rest of this story should be a breeze.

Right now, Cooley -- the Republican -- is leading Harris -- the Democrat -- by a scant 40,958 votes. That is a mere 0.5 of all votes cast and counted...at this writing.

The outstanding ballots, all from heavily Democratic Los Angeles County, would seem to favor Harris.

"There are still many votes left to count," said Debbie Mesloh, senior adviser to the Harris campaign. "We are confident that uncounted ballots will only bolster Kamala Harris, as they will reflect Harris' strong Election Day advantage."

As you might guess, the Cooley people see it...a little differently. Kevin Spillane, a senior consultant with the Cooley campaign, said last week "we expect the numbers -- and the lead -- to fluctuate during the vote counting process over the next few weeks."

Cooley declared victory on the night of the election, but backed off when he would up trailing by night's end.

Under state law, county registrars of voters must complete the vote counting by Nov. 30 and provide their counts to the Secretary of State's Office by Dec. 3.

So, at this point we do know...one of them will be declared winner by Dec. 3.

No?!

(©2010 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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