Nearly a week after Los Angeles voters cast their ballots, the battle for a spot in the city’s mayoral runoff remains unsettled, with independent candidate Spencer Pratt watching his advantage steadily narrow as additional votes are counted.
According to Fox News, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass has already secured her place in the November runoff after finishing first in the city’s primary election.
The remaining question is whether Pratt or City Councilmember Nithya Raman will claim the second spot on the ballot.
The latest vote totals show Pratt still ahead, but by a much smaller margin than on Election Night.
According to the most recent Associated Press tally, Bass led the field with 235,180 votes, or 34.8%. Pratt followed with 184,596 votes, representing 27.3%, while Raman stood close behind with 177,102 votes, or 26.2%.
Pratt’s lead over Raman was reduced to just 7,494 votes as election officials continued processing ballots.
Los Angeles County is still counting ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and received by June 9, a process that has drawn criticism from Republicans and election integrity advocates.
The Republican National Committee highlighted the prolonged count through an online tracker focused on California’s election process.
“The California primary ended on June 2, 2026; yet California is still counting ballots,” the tracker states.
“The state’s election system is a complete joke. The RNC is tracking every hour it takes California to finish the count.”
Recent ballot updates have largely favored Raman. In the latest batch, she gained 23,514 votes compared to Pratt’s 10,336, cutting his lead by more than 13,000 votes in a single reporting period.
Pratt reacted to the continued counting with a post on X, sharing a meme alongside the caption: “Me trying to figure out how votes get counted in LA.”
Under California’s top-two primary system, the two highest vote-getters advance to the general election if no candidate wins an outright majority.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy criticized California’s election procedures while discussing the delayed results.
“The question to the rest of the world is what happened to California elections? Well, I’ll tell you, it’s Gavin Newsom,” McCarthy said on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“When Gavin Newsom was elected governor of California, you knew who was elected in a day to two days. Now it takes more than weeks, almost a month.”
McCarthy added, “Why did we get here? Gavin changed a number of election laws in which you want to see is what did he do and why did he cause it?”
Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo argued that the late-count trend is not unusual in California elections and suggested Raman remains positioned to gain ground.
“I was always a little jealous of east coast elections getting so much attention in the media and on this app, yeah nevermind,” Trujillo wrote on X.
“The stupidity from these out of state analysts and reporters and the bots and fake accounts it brings to what is really a very NORMAL process happening in Los Angeles and California is annoying.”
As the count continues, attention remains fixed on whether Pratt can maintain his slim advantage or whether Raman will complete a late surge and secure the final place in November’s mayoral runoff.
