Cliffhanger in the O.C.

The Orange County state Senate fight between Democrat Lou Correa and Republican Lynn Daucher remains undecided. This morning, Daucher took the lead by a slim 138 votes, but with 160,000 remaining to be counted. Another 21,000 provisional ballots were given to voters whose registration status could not be verified. The parties are mobilizing, according to our man in the O.C., Christian Berthelsen:

"Highlighting the stakes in the central Orange County race, the state Democratic and Republican parties sent their top lawyers to oversee the count. The attorneys and campaign workers from both sides spent much of Wednesday hunched over computer screens in the county registrar's Santa Ana warehouse monitoring signature verification on absentee ballots and any unusual markings on ballots the computers rejected."

Get updates on the race here.

Democrats currently control the state Senate, with 25 of 40 seats. Correa and Daucher were fighting to replace state Sen. Joe Dunn, a Democrat, who was termed out. The district includes Orange County cities such as Santa Ana and Westminster.

Meanwhile, in the cool part of Orange County, things were just as confusing and unsettled: Ryan packed his duffel bag, then called Julie and said he was leaving (for Mexico). Seth spied on their conversation about the private eye and Volchok's whereabouts. At college, Che is protesting again — against the board of trustees' decision to cut down an old tree on the quad. Seth, in Mexico, searched for Ryan in Ensenada. Seth confronts Volchok but then he disappears. Back in Newport, Sandy calls Julie and threatens to have her arrested as an accessory to murder, but she says Ryan would be arrested too. Sandy won't go for that.