As of noon today, it looks like several key races in yesterday’s primary elections did not yield winners with more than 50% of the vote, so they may be heading to November runoff elections between the top two finishers in each contest. These include the City Council races in Districts 4 and 10, and the race for LA County District 2 Supervisor.
Here are the results reported by the LA Times as of mid-day Wednesday in the City Council District 4 race (note that these totals are from less than 100% of precincts reporting):
City Council District 4
Candidate             Votes          Pct.
David Ryu             18,298          46.8%
Nithya Raman         15,000          38.3
Sarah Kate Levy        5,838          14.9
With many ballots yet to be counted, Councilmember David Ryu’s campaign told the Buzz that “Councilmember Ryu is proud of winning the most votes so far and of building a powerful coalition of community members, organized labor, and Democratic Party activists. At the moment, it is still too early to call the final results of the election, with vote-by-mail ballots still arriving to the County Registrar’s Office. Our campaign will continue to review the Registrar’s regular updates, and we are optimistic that Councilmember Ryu will continue to serve the Fourth Council District in his second term.”
Nithya Raman’s campaign told us, “Regardless of what the final outcome of this race is, we are so proud of the work we have done in this campaign, the record-breaking number of volunteers who knocked on doors for us, and the coalition of progressive grassroots organizations that supported us…We are so grateful to the residents of District 4 for their support and look forward to the rest of the results.”
County officials told the Buzz they have tallied all the ballots that were cast on election day and all the vote-by-mail ballots they have received so far. However, they are still receiving ballots that were postmarked March 3, and they will also be counting provisional ballots and ballots cast by voters who registered on election day. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk staff has 28 days to continue counting before they will finalize the results.
So far the voter turnout is estimated at 20.62 percent of registered voters, but that number is likely to increase as more ballots are received and counted, explained Mike Sanchez, Public Information Officer for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
While there were long lines at some polling places, Sanchez told us many people reported having a good experience voting, as we did.
“We will refine the system and work to improve it before November,” said Sanchez, including the possibility of adding more polling places.
In other local races, there are similar likely runoff scenarios at this point in the count:
City Council District 10
Candidate            Votes           Pct.
Mark Ridley-Thomas  11,440          46.9%
Grace Yoo              6,053          24.8
Aura Vasquez           4,367          17.9
Melvin Snell            1,447           5.9
Channing L Martinez   1,099           4.5
Supervisor District 2
Candidate            Votes           Pct.
Herb J Wesson        51,750           32.1%
Holly J Mitchell       41,139           25.5
Jan C Perry           19,771           12.3
Albert Robles         18,357           11.4
Jorge Nuno           10,715            6.6
Jake Jeong           10,546            6.5
Rene L Rigard          9,007            5.6
On the other hand, District Attorney Jackie Lacey does seem assured of another term:
District Attorney
Candidate            Votes             Pct.
Jackie Lacey        489,835             50.7%
George Gascon      259,307             26.8
Rachel A Rossi      217,165             22.5
And Measure R seems to have passed:
Measure R: Civilian oversight of Sheriff’s department
Candidate            Votes             Pct.
Yes                  705,369             71.2%
No                   285,685             28.8
According to the LA Times, however, with a 91.64% of precincts reporting, the statewide Proposition 13, for new school bonds, is trailing:
Proposition 13
Candidate            Votes             Pct.
No                 2,826,568             55.9%
Yes                2,233,555             44.1
