Right-leaning Los Angeles mayoral candidate and former reality star Spencer Pratt, who posted a strong second-place finish following Tuesday’s primaries, is continuing to lose ground to the other top two Democrats in the race.
As of early Saturday, Pratt remained in second place, but third-place finisher, socialist Nithya Ramen, has been quickly catching up.
Reports noted that late-arriving ballots heavily favor Raman. She gained more than 10,000 votes in the latest dump compared to under 6,000 for Pratt.
The first place finisher, incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, has already received enough votes to advance to the November election. So the battle for second place in California’s jungle primary system goes on.
It’s not clear when all votes will be counted. Under California law, ballots must be postmarked by election day but can arrive up to seven days later and still be considered valid.
According to the latest vote update from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk, Pratt remains in the lead with 163,549 votes, compared to 130,473 for Raman, maintaining an advantage of nearly six percentage points.
However, the newest batch of ballots favored Raman.
A review of archived vote totals shows that Raman gained more than 10,000 votes in the latest tabulation, while Pratt added fewer than 6,000 votes over the same reporting period.
In the previous count, Pratt held 157,116 votes to Raman’s 119,809. While Pratt continues to lead overall, the latest numbers indicate that Raman has been narrowing the gap as additional ballots are processed and counted.
In the governor’s race, Republican Steve Hilton is holding a narrow lead over former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
As of Friday afternoon, Hilton has received 1,533,435 votes, according to the California Secretary of State. Becerra trails with 1,470,100 votes.
Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer trails both with 1,139,517 votes.
The slow process by which California conducts its elections, often taking weeks before winners are announced, is ripe for fraud, critics contend.
In fact, the fluid situation between top candidates in L.A. and statewide has now drawn the attention of the Justice Department.
President Donald Trump, noting as much on Thursday, accused “Dumocrats” of stealing California’s elections amid delayed vote counts and said that the DOJ is investigating the situation.
Trump made his comments while the state counted the votes from Tuesday’s jungle primaries for California governor and Los Angeles mayor.
State officials warned that tallying the mail-in ballots for the elections may take weeks, the Washington Times reported.
“The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS,” Trump posted on Truth Social early Thursday.
“There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY???” Trump posted shortly after his first one.
“Look what’s happening in California, the Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the Vote. I hope the Republicans are watching so that they can finally pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!” Trump posted on Thursday afternoon.
Trump then posted about the Save America Act, noting that it requires all voters to show photo ID; all voters must show proof of U.S. citizenship; restrictions on mail-in ballots; no men in women’s sports; and no transgender surgeries for children.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is defending the insanely slow pace of counting ballots from California’s primary elections on Tuesday as critics claim the process reeks of corruption.
Newsom’s office posted an “explainer” video featuring CNN correspondent Elex Michaelson defending the state’s slow count as baked into California law.
