Democratic congressional candidate Andy Kim has declared himself the District 3 winner, although not all of the votes have been counted yet.

Kim held a celebration at an event in Mount Laurel Wednesday evening.

Ballot counting in the race between Kim and Republican incumbent Rep. Tom MacArthur has taken at least 30 hours. 

District 3 encompasses Burlington and Ocean counties. Election officials in both counties say that they received an unprecedented amount of mail-in ballots, which have taken time to count.

“We’ve never had that in an off-year election,” Burlington County Board of Elections Chairman Joseph Dugan said.

Rep. MacArthur is not backing down, saying in a statement, "This has been a hard fought campaign and like Andy Kim, I'm ready to see it come to an end. I have always said that I will be guided by the voters of the district and there are nearly 7,000 more of them who haven’t been heard from yet.”

The statement continued, “We must ensure that their votes - and all votes - are counted in a transparent way that protects the integrity of this election."

As of Wednesday night, the Associated Press has not announced the winner of the race.