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Raman edges Pratt
Nithya Raman, a Los Angeles city councillor, appeared to be edging out Spencer Pratt in the LA mayoral race challenging incumbent Mayor Karen Bass as Donald Trump repeated falsehoods that California elections are “rigged”.
“Spencer Pratt drops to third in LA mayoral race LA Magazine's Ellina Abovian discusses the state of the race for mayor in Los Angeles”
As of Sunday afternoon, Raman led by just over 3,000 votes with 196,198 votes to Pratt’s 193,085, according to the most recently available figures, with just under 150,000 ballots left to be counted, the Associated Press estimated.
KTLA said Pratt was not discouraged by the turn in the race and posted Monday on social media, “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!”
The same KTLA report said it was still unknown who will challenge Bass in the November mayoral runoff, while NewsNation’s Decision Desk HQ projected Raman had won the second place spot and the Associated Press was not making the call just yet.
KTLA added that the official results will be certified June 26, with votes continuing to be counted on Monday and Los Angeles County officials saying the next round of results would be released around 5 p.m.
Trump alleges cheating
Trump attacked the vote-counting process as the race tightened, saying on Truth Social, “Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had. 3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections!”
KTLA also quoted Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan responding to the claim, saying, “First, I don’t want us to be distracted by that. We have a job to do.”
The Guardian described Trump continuing to repeat falsehoods that California elections are “rigged”, and said on Friday he walked out of an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press after making false election claims, calling the state “crooked” and alleging there was “cheating”.
The Guardian reported that the US justice department sent a federal prosecutor to observe ballot processing in Los Angeles, while Bill Essayli announced that his office, along with the FBI’s Los Angeles office, had “multiple election fraud investigations under way”.
CBS News said Pratt took to social media to question the late surge in votes that were in favor of Raman and quoted his message to 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,” followed by “Let’s git-r-dun!”
Runoff stakes and timelines
The outcome of the runoff hinges on who finishes second behind Bass, with CBS News saying Bass will advance to the runoff and that Raman overtook Pratt by less than a percent as of Sunday, with 83% of votes counted.
“California voters are still waiting for results in two of the , as the races for governor and Los Angeles mayor remain unresolved after a weekend that saw a shift in the battle for the second spot in the November mayoral election”
CBS News reported that as of Sunday night Bass maintained just under 35% of votes, while Raman had 27.1% to Pratt’s 26.7%, and it said Raman told CBS LA, “We are encouraged by the latest vote count and remain grateful to the thousands of Angelenos who have powered this campaign,” as the votes continued to be counted.
KTLA said Los Angeles County officials planned to release the next round of results around 5 p.m. on Monday and that the official results would be certified June 26.
Forbes reported that, according to the Associated Press, 83% of the votes had been tallied so far and that Raman had secured 27.1% while Pratt had 26.7%, putting them on track to join Bass in the runoff.
The Guardian added that the governor’s race remained unclear as voters waited to learn whether Republican Steve Hilton or Democrat Tom Steyer would advance to run against former Biden administration cabinet official Xavier Becerra, who advanced to the general election on Friday.
