Late Ballot Dumps May Just Put Socialist Over Republican Days After Election

The likelihood of Socialist Democrat Nithya Raman being elected Los Angeles’s next mayor is surging following multiple late-breaking ballot dumps nearly a week after polls closed and despite having trailed Republican Spencer Pratt by ten points on Election Day.

The Indian-born Los Angeles city councilwoman who entered the race in February sits in third place at the time of writing Saturday night. She is just one percentage point behind Pratt, a former reality star with whom she is competing for the second spot in November’s runoff election, according to The Associated Press (AP). With 78% of ballots counted, incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass has 34.6% of the vote, Pratt has 27.3%, and Raman has 26.2%.

While AP has already projected Bass will advance to the November runoff, it is unclear if she will face the challenger from her left or from her right.

Securing 46% of the vote as of election night, Pratt had a ten-point lead over Raman: his 30.1% compared to her 20.2%, according to AP. This gap shrank to seven points just hours later; the following day, 63% of the vote was counted. By Thursday, when 71% of the vote was counted, Pratt was leading the socialist by only four points.

“Raman needed to beat Pratt by 8.7 points in the remaining vote today. Instead, she won this drop by 22.5 points, and it was a large batch,” VoteHub head of data science Zachary Donnini