Hamilton Mountain race between Liberals and NDP is still undecided

The wait continues Wednesday morning to learn the winner of a federal election race on Hamilton Mountain.

Liberal Lisa Hepfner is leading NDP candidate Malcolm Allen by 682 votes so far, Elections Canada results show. Hepfner's campaign says there are about 1,700 mail-in and special votes left to count, and the full count will likely wrap up Thursday.

Colin Lalonde, Hepfner's campaign manager, says the team is still in wait-and-see mode.

"We look forward to hearing the full results as they're confirmed by Elections Canada and ask for your continued patience while our trusted democratic process plays out," Hepfner told residents on social media Tuesday.

The Mountain is the tightest race of Hamilton's five electoral districts, the rest of which were decided on election day Monday.

The riding has been NDP since 2006, and its former MP Scott Duvall has retired. Allen, a one-time Niagara Centre MP who was unseated by the Liberals in 2015, has been fighting for the riding against Hepfner, a CHCH reporter.

As of Wednesday morning, Hepfner has 33.8 per cent of the vote compared to Allen's 32.3 per cent. Conservative Al Miles has 11,409 votes, or 24.6 per cent. People's Party candidate Chelsey Taylor earned 3,024 votes (6.5 per cent) and Green candidate Dave Urquhart, who did not actively campaign, has 935 votes (two per cent).