Los Angeles County certifies election, solidifying Board of Supervisors, DA results

On Friday afternoon, the Los Angeles County registrar certified results from the March 5 primary election cementing the victories of three incumbent county supervisors and confirming that District Attorney George Gascón and challenger Nathan Hochman will proceed to a November runoff.

A total of 1,641,715 ballots were processed with 28.9% of eligible L.A. County voters casting ballots, according to the registrar.

While three and a half weeks may feel like a long time to wait for final results, this is the typical timeline for the vote certification process in California. Ensuring that every ballot is counted fairly is a challenge because the state has more than 22 million registered voters and waits for the arrival of all vote by mail ballots postmarked on Election Day.

During the days and weeks following the election, county registrars across the state are busy verifying signatures, reviewing rejected ballots and resolving discrepancies. The Secretary of State’s office will issue a final certification of results on April 14.

Here is where the major L.A. County and state races stood as of Friday’s update.

District Attorney Race

Incumbent George Gascón came in first in the district attorney’s race with 25.2% of the vote, followed by former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman with 15.9% of the vote. The two will face off on the November ballot.

The race will pit the progressive criminal justice reform policies of Gascón against against the tougher-on crime approach of Hochman.

“The voters of Los Angeles County spoke loud and clear on March 5: Gascon’s extreme, pro-criminal policies have failed and the people want a new District Attorney who will advocate for crime victims and strive every day to keep them safe,” Hochman said in a statement released after the certification of results.

Gascón has vowed to stick to his reform agenda, which includes a ban trying juveniles as adults, and on many sentencing enhancements, and on the prosecution of a wide swath of misdemeanors.

In a statement released shortly after election night, Gascón said the primary results showed “that a strong base of voters are committed to moving forward, not returning to the failed criminal justice policies of the past.”

The incumbent attorney faced a crowded field of 11 challengers in the primary race. Aside from Gascón and Hochman, Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami was the only other candidate who hit the double digits. He finished the race in third place with 13.2% of the vote.

Board of Supervisors races

Incumbent county supervisors Holly Mitchell, Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger all received a majority of the vote in their respective districts. As a result, they won their seats outright and will forgo a November runoff.

In the race for the 2nd District, which represents the South Bay’s coastal communities, Mitchell received 68.45%. Daphne Bradford came in second place with 13.2% of the vote, while Clint Carlton came in third with 11.3% and Katrina Williams in fourth with 7.0%.

In the 4th District, Hahn finished with 57.8%, defeating both former L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva who had 28.1% of the vote and Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank who had 14.1%. The district runs from Torrance, Palos Verdes, San Pedro and Long Beach up through the 605 Freeway corridor cities to Whittier, then westerly to Huntington Park, Lynwood and South Gate.

“For four more years, communities across our district will have a voice and a warrior working to expand housing that is affordable, raise wages for workers, expand mental health services, urgently house the unhoused, protect clean air and water, safeguard reproductive freedom, help small businesses compete and grow, while building safer neighborhoods for all,” Hahn said in a March 8 victory statement.

Barger won the 5th District seat with 56.8%, defeating state Assemblymember Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, who spent more than $1 million on the race and finished with 21.9% of the vote. Burbank City Councilmember Konstantine Anthony finished with 11.4%, Perry Goldberg of Acton with 7.6% and Marlon Marroquin with 2.2%.

This district runs from the north county area of the Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita Valley, through the Angeles National Forest and the foothill communities of the San Gabriel Valley.

U.S. Senate

The November ballot will pitch Representative Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, against Republican and former Dodger player Steve Garvey in the race for U.S. Senate. Final results in this race are still awaiting certification from the secretary of state’s office.

As of March 29, Schiff held 31.6% of the vote and Garvey held with 31.5%. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, was in third with 15.3% and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, was in fourth with 9.8%. The remaining 23 candidates each had 3% or less of the vote.

While Garvey benefitted from the split Democratic vote in the primary, in deep blue California the one-on-one partisan showdown in November plays to the advantage of Schiff. The last time a Republican from California was elected to the U.S. Senate was Pete Wilson in 1988.

Proposition 1

Governor Newsom declared victory for his $6.4 billion mental health bond measure on March 20. The final results are awaiting certification from the secretary of state’s office, but as of March 29 the measure was supported by 50.2% of voters and opposed by 49.8%.

“I’ve never been associated with something I’m more proud of,” Newsom said at Los Angeles press conference celebrating the bill’s passage. He added that “now is the time” to deliver on his vision to fix a broken mental health system and get people off the streets.

The measure will direct $4.4 billion to create 10,000 new mental health beds and $2 billion for homeless housing projects, half of which will be reserved for veterans with mental illnesses or substance use issues. It will also require that counties spend 30% of revenue from the Mental Health Services Act on housing.

On election night it was not clear whether the measure would pass. Opponents decried the proposition as fiscally irresponsible and argued that it could result in the defunding of existing mental health services. It came close to failure in successive vote updates and at one point there were only 13,000 votes, in a state with 22 million registered voters, standing between the measure passing and failing.