LD-16 Has Fallen?

Democratic Assembly candidate Andrew Zwicker increased his lead over incumbent Republican Assemblywoman Donna Simon Thursday after provisional ballots from Mercer County were tallied, but the race is still too close to call.

Chasing News and even Zwicker himself on Election Night predicted a nailbitingly close loss in the 16th Legislative District, which includes parts of Somerset, Mercer, Hunterdon and Middlesex counties.

But the final tallies surprised everyone, with Zwicker ending up with a razor-thin lead of 29 votes over Simon by the end of Tuesday night.

Now, provisional ballots supplied conditionally on Election Day are being checked, verified and counted. Zwicker picked up 19 votes in Hunterdon County Wednesday to Simon's nine, padding his lead by 10. On Thursday, Chasing News was inside the Mercer County Board of Elections, where officials checked and tallied the handful of votes that could end up deciding this contentious race. Watch and see how it went.