AP Calls Los Angeles Race for Nithya Raman
The Associated Press called the race for Nithya Raman after another round of ballot counting in Los Angeles changed the numbers again. The latest count gave Raman a lead of roughly 22,000 votes over Spencer Pratt, six days after Election Day.
In this batch, Raman picked up more than 33,000 votes. Pratt added less than 15,000. That was enough to widen the gap and settle the race for the AP, at least for now.
On election night, Raman was trailing Pratt by about 40,000 votes. As more mail ballots were counted in the days after the vote, the margin kept moving. What looked like a comfortable lead for Pratt on Election Day slowly slipped away as late ballots were added to the tally.
The AP described the post-Election Day shift this way: “Large numbers of Democrats held onto their mail ballots and returned them in the race’s final days, which helps explain why Bass and Raman have been doing better than Pratt in the votes counted since primary day.”
The late-counted ballots also changed the mood around Raman’s campaign. On election night, she appeared emotional at her watch party and delivered what looked like a goodbye-style speech. By the time the later totals came in, the race had taken a very different turn.
Trump also weighed in on Monday, saying, “Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost,” and adding, “3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections!” Trump said.
The count had already been moving for days. One report said Raman gained about 40,000 votes over five days as California continued adding in late-arriving mail ballots. Pratt later pointed to the unusual size of Raman’s gain and compared it to the city’s homeless population.
For now, the AP call puts Raman in the next round of the contest, where she is set to face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in November.