California voters are eager to know who won elections. Here's why the answer is slow going
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After the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral primary, developer Rick Caruso looked to have a surprising, and sizable, lead over then-U.S.Rep.
Karen Bass.The morning after the polls closed, Caruso was ahead by 5 percentage points — 42% to Bass’ 37% — and the former Republican called the early results “a victory story.”But that lead did not last as the vote count continued.
By the time all votes were tabulated two weeks after election day, Bass had come out on top, with 43% of the vote compared with Caruso’s 36%.Welcome to the postelection vote-count slog in California, where tight races are often impossible to call even when the initial results seem clear-cut.Politics Los Angeles primary election map: See how your neighborhood voted for Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman in the 2026 L.A.
mayoral race.The California governor’s race still has not been called even though Republican Steve Hilton has been the top voter-getter and Democrat Xavier Becerra has been in second place since election night.The same is true in the battle over who will face Bass in the mayoral election: reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, who is now in second place, or L.A.
City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is in third place.At this point in the vote tally, “everybody has an opinion and very few facts” about what the results will be, said Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist.“Nobody in politics wants to be patient,” Murphy said, adding that California has “adopted a system that’s slow and deliberate.”It’s not just the L.A.mayor’s race where mail-in ballots have swung election outcomes.
Other contests, including those for highly competitive Orange County congressional districts and L.A.City Council seats, have come down to extremely narrow margins that have shifted long after election day.
On election night in November 2024, just over 1,000 votes separated Democrat Dave Min...