Indian American Congressman Ami Bera will fight till last vote is counted

Indian American Congressman Amerish ‘Ami’ Bera has no plans to throw in the towel just yet in his re-election election bid from California’s 7th Congressional District where he narrowly trails his Republican opponent Doug Ose. Aziz Haniffa / Rediff.com reports

Even though with all of the 100 percent precincts reporting that Republican challenger Doug Ose had got the better of incumbent Democrat Dr Amerish ‘Ami’ Bera by 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent in the election for California’s 7th Congressional District, the only Indian American lawmaker has not thrown in the towel. In fact, he is far from doing so.

In an exclusive interview with rediff.com, Bera exhorted the Indian American community not to lose faith that it had lost the only Indian American representative in the US legislature, but instead to help him raise funds to pay the best election lawyers in the country that he had hired to make sure that each and every mail-in and absentee ballot was counted.

After a back and forth on election day, November 4, when each candidate led the other with Bera, 49, leading Ose, 59, by a few hundred votes by 50.4 per cent to 49.6 per cent with 56 per cent of the precincts reporting, ultimately when all 100 percent of the precincts were tallied, Ose was ahead by 56,284 to 53,273 votes respectively.

However, neither Ose declared victory nor Bera conceded defeat. 

Bera asserted, “I am not going to concede at all.”

“It was a tough and close race and this was always expected,” he said, and recalled, “If you remember in the contest in 2012 (with then Republican incumbent Dan Lungren) we were tied and after all the ballots were counted, we won by over 9,000 votes.”

Bera said, “The Registrar has tens of thousands of votes that haven’t even been counted yet,” but he acknowledged that by the same token, once they all came in and were counted, it would perhaps enhance Ose’s slight lead too.

“Of course,” he said, “but if you look at the trend, the late ballots that get turned in, has generally gone in our direction. In 2010, we picked up thousands of votes and in 2012, we picked up over 9,000 votes.”

Bera noted, “So, it is a long way to go and there are still tens of thousands of ballots that were late ballots…

So, this is such a close race, but I am very optimistic.”

He said, “Where the community can help the most is -- as this is going to be a very close race -- we are preparing our recount fight and we are hiring the best election lawyer in the country and his team to come out and make sure that every ballot gets counted, because now, this is where the Republicans are going to try to not count ballots. So, we have to make sure that the Registrar counts all the ballots.”

Thus, Bera hoped the community would rally and provide him with all of the funds necessary needed to pay for this top-notch legal team. 

“These guys are expensive; we have the best team on the ground and we are getting them out here because they are going to be counting the ballots on Thursday (November 6) and then there will be regular updates.”

“But then again, remember, in 2012, it took nine days to call the race,” he added.

Bera acknowledged that it is possible that it could take longer this time around and joked, “I hope Janine (Bera’s wife) doesn’t kick me out of the house.”

But getting serious, said, “I am not making any predictions because this was obviously a very different election cycle. But in truth, we feel very confident. I know how hard our team was working on the ground these last few days and given how many races the Democrats lost, we feel pretty good about where we are right now.”

He acknowledged that he had to contend with the anti-Obama, anti-Democrat trend. 

He also explained that even though all the 100 percent of the precincts had voted and the votes counted had put Ose ahead, “Remember, what that means is that 100 percent precincts are just the folks that had already voted on election day.”

“But you have tens of thousands of ballots that were dropped off that have not been counted and the Registrar of Voters is tallying up how many are left over,” he pointed out. “Some outlets have reported that it’s up to 90,000 ballots still remaining to be processed.”

Bera continued to reiterate and recall that “remember, when 100 percent of the precincts were counted on election night on 2012, we were tied up. After they counted all those other ballots, we won by over 9,000 votes. So this is far from over.”