As of 5 p.m. Monday, Gary George Kreep was 601 votes behind Garland Peed in the race to be a San Diego County Superior Court Judge.
But Kreep has made news before this tight election. After President Barack Obama's inauguration, Kreep took on a so-called "birther" lawsuit demanding proof of Obama's birth certificate. He is also currently suing the California Secretary of State, demanding she verify citizenship of all candidates before they appear on the November ballot.
Kreep said the purpose of the lawsuit against Obama was "we believe it's important to protect the Constitution, it's important for people to have faith in our government, to have faith in our elected officials."
"Mr. Obama's spending of over $2 million, according to published reports, to keep people from seeing his real birth certificate, which no one has yet seen, we've seen computer compilations of various documents that are supposed to be the real birth certificate," he said.
Kreep said he has "sincere doubts" Obama is a U.S. citizen.
"According to his paternal step-grandmother, who stated in a published statement that no one has ever disputed, he was born in Mombassa, what is now Kenya, and she performed a Zulu birth ritual on him," Kreep said. "Now why would his own family say he was born in Mombassa?"
McClatchy Newspapers reported in 2009 that a full tape recording of that interview shows Obama's step-grandmother later clarifying, "Obama was not born in Mombassa. He was born in America."
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal challenging Obama's citizenship.
Kreep said "questions have been raised" about whether presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is a citizen. But Kreep said he does not have concerns about Romney's citizenship.
If Kreep is elected, he does not think his position on these issues will affect his credibility.
"Representing clients has nothing to do with handing out justice," he said. "Judges make law every day, and judges need to be open minded."
"If I am elected, my role as a judge is to uphold the United States Constitution, then the California Constitution, then the laws of the state," he said. "My personal views really have nothing to do with how I rule on cases, I have to follow the law, that's what I'm required to do."
"My world view is based on the Bible, is based on the Constitution," he added. "If you read the Founding Fathers' documents, they based the Constitution on the Bible, you look at the Declaration of Independence, they're not talking about some esoteric thing, they're talking about God."
As of the end of the day Monday, 26,000 absentee ballots had yet to be counted. Peed declined to be interviewed until the final vote count was released.
