THE APEX TIMES
With 83.2% of the expected vote reported, Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman overtook Spencer Pratt for the second-place spot in the mayoral primary, but election officials had not finalized who will face Mayor Karen Bass in the November runoff.
Los Angeles mayoral primary vote counting continued on Sunday as Nithya Raman moved ahead of Spencer Pratt into second place in the standings, according to an updated tally released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk and reported by NBC Los Angeles. NBC said Mayor Karen Bass remained in first place, while Raman acquired a lead over Pratt of 3,113 votes with 83.2% of the expected vote in.
In the update, Bass held 250,871 votes, or 34.68% of the vote counted, while Raman received 27.12% of the ballots counted so far. Pratt had 26.69%, leaving Raman narrowly ahead for the second-place spot. NBC reported that the registrar’s Sunday update included 122,807 ballots, bringing the total number of processed ballots to 1,897,653.
The Los Angeles City Clerk’s election materials state the city’s primary nominating election was held June 2, 2026, and the general municipal election is scheduled for November 3, 2026. Under California’s primary system for local nonpartisan offices, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, making the second-place determination in the mayoral contest consequential for who will appear on the November ballot against Bass.
AP reported Sunday that the race remained too early to call, describing California’s ballot-processing timeline as a drawn-out process because mailed ballots are counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within a set period after the election. AP said Raman had gained on Pratt in updates provided since the count began Tuesday, and it cited a projection that a limited number of ballots remained to be counted as of late Sunday.
AP also reported that President Donald Trump and other Republicans pointed to the slow vote count and raised fraud allegations without providing evidence, and said the president suggested the Department of Justice would investigate. In its own update, NBC Los Angeles said the registrar reported more than 368,000 ballots had yet to be counted as of Sunday afternoon, and NBC said another results update was expected on Monday.
NBC Los Angeles reported that both campaigns responded to the Sunday update. Raman issued a statement saying the campaign was encouraged by the latest vote count, while Pratt’s campaign did not immediately respond to NBC’s request for comment, according to the report. The next vote-counting update was expected to further narrow the margin, depending on how remaining mail ballots are processed and released.