Nithya Raman, a progressive Los Angeles City Council member, has surpassed reality-TV star Spencer Pratt in the city’s mayoral primary, with a surge in her vote count putting her in second place nearly a week after Election Day.
Six days after the nonpartisan primary election, officials continue processing hundreds of thousands of outstanding mail-in ballots to determine races up and down the ballot, including for governor and who will face off against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in November.
By Monday morning, with 87% of votes counted, Ms. Bass led the field with 34.68%, followed by Ms. Raman at 27.12% and Mr. Pratt trailing at 26.69%. No candidate surpassed the 50% threshold that would have avoided a runoff.
The shift has been dramatic. One day after the election, Mr. Pratt held roughly 40,000 more votes than Ms. Raman, sitting in second place with 30.4% to her 22.3%, with Ms. Bass leading at 34.8%. That cushion has since evaporated.
The slow-moving count has become its own subplot in the race, putting renewed focus on California’s process, where every registered voter receives a mail-in ballot and votes can be counted as long as ballots are postmarked by Election Day, meaning the leaderboard can keep shifting for days.
The dynamic is playing out statewide as well.
In the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democrat Xavier Becerra has been projected to advance to the November general election, but the battle for the second spot remains unsettled.
With approximately 72% of votes counted, Mr. Becerra held 27.2%, Republican Steve Hilton was close behind at 25.9%, and Democrat Tom Steyer stood in third place at 21.5%.
On election night, with less than 60% of the expected vote in, Mr. Hilton had led with 28% to Mr. Becerra’s 25% and Mr. Steyer’s 20%. Mr. Becerra took the lead over Mr. Hilton on Friday evening.
President Trump has derided the process as “rigged,” telling NBC that California’s state and local election officials are “crooked.” He hasn’t provided evidence for either claim.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said Friday it had opened “multiple election fraud investigations” related to California’s elections and sent a prosecutor to the county’s vote-counting center.
The announcement by U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Mr. Trump’s appointee as the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, marked an escalation in the president’s campaign against the Democrat-dominated state, whose prolonged vote count has long attracted election-conspiracy theories.
Mr. Pratt responded to the results on X on Sunday night, writing: “’A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday.’ 43,000, huh? Where have I seen that number before…? Probably nothing.”
He later reassured his supporters: “Folks, we’re dealing with a fraction of a percentage point difference, there’s still hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding, and LA officials have given us the next 3 weeks to count! Let’s git-r-dun!”
Because the mayor’s seat is formally nonpartisan, all candidates appeared on a single ballot.
Ms. Bass, a liberal Democrat who won the mayor’s office in 2022, has struggled with low approval ratings, which, in large part, are the byproduct of her response to devastating wildfires that broke out across the region last year.
Homelessness has also remained a persistent issue.
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