Democratic challenger Christy Smith has added slightly to her lead over Republican incumbent Dante Acosta in the contest for California’s 38th Assembly District, and is ahead by 5,376 votes as of Wednesday.

The latest count of mail-in and provisional ballots for the Nov. 6 general election reported late Wednesday afternoon is from Los Angeles County only; the Ventura County registrar’s next update is set for Monday, Dec. 3. The 38th Assembly District includes areas of both counties.

In LA County, Smith now has 70,434 or 52.98 percent of the ballots counted to Acosta’s 62,505 or 47.02 percent.

In Ventura County, Smith had 24,843 votes (47.56 percent) and Acosta 27,396 votes (52.44 percent) as of Tuesday afternoon, the most recent update from the Ventura County registrar.

Smith’s total in both counties is now 95,277 votes to Acosta’s 89,901, a lead of 5,376 votes.

A week ago, Wednesday, Nov. 21, Smith’s total in both counties was 89,468 votes to Acosta’s 85,417, a lead of 4,051 votes.

Assemblyman Dante Acosta (R-Santa Clarita) on SCVTV’s “Newsmaker of the Week.”

On Election Night, Acosta’s overall lead was 1,222 votes.

Acosta conceded the race to Smith Wednesday, Nov. 14, as the count of provisional and mail-in ballots continued to trend toward Smith.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 51,000 provisional ballots remained to be counted just in LA County. Of those, roughly 4 percent should be from the 38th Assembly District.

The next update from LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean C. Logan is set for Friday, Nov. 30, but will “only include a portion of the remaining outstanding ballots that are verified ansd qualified for counting,” according to his Wednesday post.

The election results are not final until the count is complete and certified.