LA mayors race: Nithya Raman surges, closes gap on Spencer Pratt for runoff spot
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LOS ANGELES - The latest updated vote tally released Friday shows Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman continuing a three-day streak of cutting into candidate Spencer Pratt's lead.
The two are locked in a tight battle to determine who will challenge incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the upcoming November runoff election.
What we know:
The latest data from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk shows Spencer Pratt in second place with 174,260 votes (28.24%), while Nithya Raman follows closely behind with 153,588 votes (24.89%).
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Raman has narrowed Pratt's lead to 20,672 votes—a significant drop from Pratt's 33,076-vote lead on Thursday and his 40,302-vote lead on Wednesday.
Raman is currently about 3.4 percentage points behind Pratt.
Meanwhile, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass has comfortably secured her spot in the November runoff, leading the pack with 215,868 votes, capturing nearly 35% of the total vote share.
The momentum in the latest batch of counted ballots heavily favored Raman.
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Since Thursday's returns, Raman netted an additional 23,115 votes (38%), Bass received 20,419 votes (34%), and Pratt pulled in 10,711 votes (18%).
What we don't know:
The exact number of remaining vote-by-mail, provisional, and outstanding ballots left to be processed by county election officials is unknown.
Because these ballots are still being verified and tallied, the final composition of the November runoff election remains unconfirmed.
What they're saying:
Both campaigns are staying quiet as the numbers shift.
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A representative for neither Raman's nor Pratt's campaign immediately responded to a request for comment regarding Friday's returns.
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What's next:
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will continue to process the remaining outstanding ballots over the coming days.
The Source: This report is compiled directly from the official Friday vote tallies released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office, which is responsible for processing and verifying all vote-by-mail and provisional ballots. The campaign status updates reflect direct outreach to representatives for both Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt, who have declined to comment on the shifting returns at this stage of the count.