Staff Reports
Late vote updates in the Los Angeles mayor race gave progressive Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman a narrow leap over Republican candidate Spencer Pratt for second place — but before anyone pops the champagne, tens of thousands of ballots still need counting. The numbers look close enough to fit through a keyhole. That means this “overnight” result could flip again, and the whole thing may end up in a recount or courtroom drama. Welcome to modern city politics.
Nithya Raman jumps into the second slot — by a thread
The most recent tallies put Mayor Karen Bass comfortably in first and show Nithya Raman sitting roughly 27.1% with about 196,000 votes, edging out Spencer Pratt’s roughly 26.7% and about 193,000 votes. Those are Decision Desk–style live totals, and if they hold, Raman would join Mayor Karen Bass in a likely November runoff. For now, though, “holding” is the operative word — a few thousand votes separate second and third. That margin is tiny in a city this big.
Why “but watch out” matters: the count is not finished
Los Angeles County is still processing a very large stack of ballots. The county’s Registrar‑Recorder is conducting a formal canvass and verifying vote‑by‑mail and provisional ballots. With hundreds of thousands of ballots left to process, a lead of a few thousand votes is nothing more than a temporary headline. In plain language: don’t treat late-night tallies like a court decree. Watch the official LA County canvass updates closely — they’re the only numbers that matter in the end.
There are two political lessons here. First, if Raman ends up advancing to a runoff with Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles voters will face a contest between two Democrats from very different corners of the party — one the incumbent mayor who ran on stability, the other a DSA‑aligned councilmember who ran as a hard-left progressive. Second, Spencer Pratt’s insurgent run reminds us that celebrity and noise can move early returns, but noise rarely replaces disciplined ground operations and real voters. For conservatives watching this Los Angeles mayor race, the takeaway should be simple: don’t be surprised by surprises, and don’t assume early returns are final.
What comes next is predictable chaos: daily LA County canvass bulletins, campaigns issuing spin, and if the final margin remains razor-thin, possible recount requests or legal filings. That’s how tight urban races get settled these days. If you care about clear outcomes and election transparency, demand public, step‑by‑step reporting from the Registrar — and spare us the premature coronations or the conspiracy theories until the official numbers are posted. The city will tell us who made the runoff; until then, keep the confetti boxed up and your skepticism on hand.
