Could Republicans pick up another seat in NJ? Candidate not conceding

☑️ Democrat Nellie Pou has claimed victory in the 9th Congressional District

☑️ Republican Billy Prempeh not conceding

☑️ Mail-in votes must be received by Monday

The Republican candidate running to take the congressional seat held by the late Bill Pascrell Jr. is refusing to concede the race as not all the votes have been counted.

Democrat Nellie Pou, a longtime state senator, and Billy Prempeh squared off in the 9th Congressional District. Unofficial results show Pau leading 50%-46%. Pou claimed victory Wednesday after the Associated Press called the race.

In an interview with a CBS New York reporter, Prempeh said there are 67,000 votes that have not been counted, including vote-by-mail ballots.

"I believe that I won this race. I think that there's some issue with the numbers that we're seeing. The numbers have changed multiple times already," Prempeh said. "We're down 10,000 votes. We saw these numbers move sporadically throughout the day. Until we have those 67,000 votes completely counted, we're not going to have a solid answer."

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Monday deadline for vote-by mail ballots

Monday is the deadline for mail-in ballots postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be received by county boards of election.

Official election results show him trailing in Passaic County 55%-41% but tied in Bergen County at 36% each as of Thursday morning. Prempeh told the New Jersey Globe that he would challenge the results.

If Pou is the winner, she would be the first Latina to represent the district. The 68-year-old has been in the state Legislature since 1997 when she succeeded Pascrell in the Assembly after he won his House seat.

Pascrell died in August at the age of 87 after a bout with pneumonia.  The lifelong Paterson resident was the ranking member of the powerful Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee.

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