Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman gained ground on Spencer Pratt after nearly 60,000 additional mail-in ballots were counted Friday, tightening the race for the second runoff spot against Mayor Karen Bass.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The race for the second spot in the Los Angeles mayoral runoff tightened Friday after a large batch of late-counted mail ballots boosted Democratic City Councilwoman Nithya Raman and reduced Spencer Pratt’s lead.
Nearly 60,000 additional mail-in ballots were counted Friday evening, giving Raman more than 23,000 new votes while Pratt gained roughly 11,000. The updated totals cut Pratt’s advantage over Raman as Los Angeles County officials continued processing outstanding ballots.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass has already been projected to advance to the November runoff. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers move forward.
Pratt and Raman are competing for the second runoff position. Pratt initially held a stronger lead after election night results, when early returns showed him trailing Bass by a narrow margin and ahead of Raman.
The race has since shifted as late-arriving mail ballots are added to the count. Under California law, ballots postmarked by Election Day must be counted, even if they arrive later.
Fox News correspondent Matt Finn reported from outside the Los Angeles County ballot processing center that the latest processed mail ballots were favoring Democrats, as some analysts had expected.
“The most recent mail-in ballots that were processed are favoring Democrats, as many analysts suggested they would,” Finn said. “Inside the ballot processing center here in LA County, any ballot that was postmarked by Election Day, Tuesday, must be counted by law.”
Finn said the count is expected to continue because of California’s verification and ballot-curing procedures.
“The process takes so long, in part because each ballot must have its signature verified, and if there’s an issue, there’s a 10-day period to have it cured,” Finn said, adding that it is “very likely” counting will continue into next week.
Video coverage of the ballot processing and race developments was also posted on YouTube.
At 3:18 p.m. Eastern time, Pratt led Raman by six points with 64.3% of the expected vote counted. At that point, Pratt had 29.4% of the vote, while Raman had 23.4%.
By 8:20 p.m., with 71.2% of expected votes counted, Pratt’s lead had narrowed to 3.3 percentage points, with more than 250,000 ballots still outstanding.
Patch reported that Pratt’s lead over Raman had fallen to 20,672 votes on Friday, down from 33,076 votes the previous day.
The ballot count is unfolding as federal officials have announced scrutiny of California election systems. First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said Friday that his office is conducting “multiple election fraud investigations” with the FBI and a “comprehensive audit of California’s voter rolls” with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Renner was also seen Friday observing operations at the Los Angeles County ballot processing center and reportedly asking questions about the process.
No final result has been declared in the race between Pratt and Raman. With a large number of ballots still outstanding and mail-in votes continuing to be processed, the contest for the second runoff slot remains unresolved.
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