Late-counted ballots changed the scoreboard
Los Angeles voters got another reminder that election night is often more of a rough draft than a finish line. In the latest ballot dump, Raman gained more than 19,000 votes, Bass added nearly 16,000, and Pratt picked up just under 8,500. About 80% of that batch went to the Democratic candidates, which pushed Raman past Pratt and cut a once-large gap to just over 3,000 votes. An estimated 146,000 ballots still remain to be counted, so the race is not final, but the trend is plain enough to make campaign staff reach for the coffee and the aspirin.
Bass and Raman are projected to move on
Decision Desk HQ projected that Nithya Raman will take the second runoff spot and join Mayor Karen Bass in November. ABC7’s Jory Rand noted that Pratt could still come back if a late batch suddenly tilts his way, though that looked like a long shot. Pratt had led by nearly 21,000 votes on Friday, then saw that margin shrink to 7,494 on Saturday as late-arriving mail ballots kept landing in the Democratic column. That is the modern election experience: one night you are ahead, the next night you are doing arithmetic with a grim face.
Scrutiny is growing around California election rules
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said his office is running multiple election-fraud investigations with the FBI and a broader review of California voter rolls with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. He also said California accepts a wide range of items as proof of identity, including a gym membership card, an employer ID, a credit or debit card, a prescription label, or an insurance card. Essayli said there are also open questions about whether the state removes deceased voters, people who have moved, and people convicted of disqualifying felonies quickly enough. The system keeps asking for public trust, which is funny in the same way a “do not touch” sign is funny on a big red button.
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