More than 36 hours after the polls closed on Tuesday night, election workers across California are still buried under a mountain of ballots, leaving critical races for governor and Los Angeles mayor entirely up in the air.
Because of California’s top-two primary rules, the party lines don’t matter right now. Only the two candidates who pull in the most total votes will survive to face each other in November’s general election.
In the race to replace term-limited Governor Gavin Newsom, no official projections have been made yet. As of Thursday morning, Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, and Democrat Xavier Becerra, the former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, are holding onto the top two spots. However, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, a Democrat, is making a late surge as more mail-in ballots get processed.
The early numbers brought quick concessions from several big-name Democrats, including former Orange County Representative Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. On the Republican side, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has not conceded.
“We’re not there yet, but it’s looking good,” Hilton told supporters on Tuesday night. “It looks very much like Californians really will have the chance to vote for change in November and take our state in a new direction.”
Becerra also struck an optimistic tone on election night, stating that he felt he was “on track to advance to November.”
Meanwhile, down in Los Angeles, the mayoral race is dealing with its own wave of uncertainty. While incumbent Mayor Karen Bass secured enough early support for a projected spot in the November runoff, her opponent is still a mystery.
Bass is facing an incredibly rare challenge for a sitting mayor in the heavily Democratic city. Ahead of Tuesday, polls showed Bass, City Councilmember Nithya Raman, and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt locked in a dead heat.
Pratt, who based his campaign on heavy criticism of how city leaders handled a recent destructive fire and the ongoing homelessness crisis, showed strong numbers early on. However, his momentum slowed down significantly when Los Angeles County dropped a new batch of ballot results on Wednesday.
Californians will have to be patient. State law gives counties a full 30 days to finish their official counts. Because mail-in ballots are valid as long as they were postmarked by Election Day and arrive within seven days, totals will keep shifting.
A massive wave of updates is scheduled to drop late Thursday afternoon and evening from major hubs like Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, and San Francisco counties, with Sacramento expecting its next big numbers on Friday.
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