Karen Bass sees her lead over Rick Caruso grow in L.A. mayor race
The Los Angeles mayor's race is still undecided, but the latest figures released Monday evening showed Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) widening her lead over real estate developer Rick Caruso.
More than 680,000 ballots have been counted so far, and Bass has 354,948 votes, or 52.15 percent, while Caruso has 325,677 votes, or 47.85 percent.
"These results mean Karen Bass is on track to win the mayoralty of Los Angeles," Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, told the Los Angeles Times. "For Caruso to win, he would not only have to reverse this trend, but reverse it dramatically, winning the same percentage of votes she has recently taken. There has been no indication to believe he can do that."
The election was a week ago, but Los Angeles County elections officials do not know how many ballots are left to count in the race. There are a few reasons for this. First, under state law, mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day are counted as long as they are received within seven days. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk doesn't expect a huge influx of ballots on Tuesday, but some will come in. Additionally, it's unclear how many of the ballots that are still waiting to be counted are from Los Angeles residents who voted in the mayoral race as opposed to people who live in other cities in Los Angeles County. Elections officials do not separate ballots by city until after they have been counted.
If Bass wins, she will be the first woman elected as mayor of Los Angeles and the second Black person to hold the position. "I am honored and grateful for the support we are continuing to see," Bass said in a statement Monday. "I am optimistic and looking forward to the next update."