The race has been one of the closest congressional races in the nation. As of late Tuesday, The Associated Press had called all but two House races, including the 11th ...

When the polls closed Nov. 2, initial returns had Harmer in the lead.

By the morning of Nov. 3, McNerney had a slim lead of 121 votes. In the days that followed, elections offices in the four counties went through the uncounted ballots, which included thousands of vote-by-mail ballots received Election Day or too late to be counted in the first night's tallies.

McNerney's lead grew to more than 2,000 votes as updated counts came in from three Bay Area counties. The incumbent widened the gap in Alameda and Santa Clara counties, and the two candidates ran roughly even in Contra Costa County. But more than half the district's voters live in San Joaquin County, where more voters picked Harmer.

McNerney declared victory Nov. 10 after San Joaquin County's mail-in-vote tally came in and he still had a lead of nearly 1,700 votes. But the lead was less than 1 percent of votes cast in the district, and Harmer said it wasn't over until thousands of outstanding ballots were counted. These were mostly provisional ballots -- those cast when a voter's eligibility was uncertain.

McNerney's lead grew to more than 1 percent Tuesday after San Joaquin County released the results of about 7,000 ballots, most of which were provisional.

District wide, McNerney has 47.87 percent of the vote to Harmer's 46.83 percent. American Independent Party candidate David Christensen has 12,345 votes, or 5.19 percent.

All counties have until Tuesday to give a final count to the California Secretary of State's Office, which will certify the outcome by Dec. 6. A recount can be requested, but the person making the request has to pay the bill, which could be expensive in the sprawling 11th District.