California governor and L.A. mayor results may wait — Election Day California
On election day california, the runoff candidates for California governor and L.A. mayor were still too close to call Tuesday, and experts said the results are unlikely to be known until Wednesday or Thursday. Tracy Hernandez, chief executive of New California Coalition, said, "We’re trying to keep people calm," and "Expect not to know."
The delay reflects how California counts ballots. Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University, said, "We allow people lots of different avenues to vote, and as a result it takes longer to count up all the votes." She added, "And that’s how it should be.... It’s an argument in favor of making sure the process runs correctly — not quickly."
California top-two primary
California’s primary system sends the top two vote-getters in each race to November’s general election. That means the governor and L.A. mayor contests can stay open after Election Day until late ballot totals settle the field.
Slow counting is not new in the state. A particularly competitive 2022 U.S. House race in California’s Central Valley took three weeks to call and was decided by a couple of hundred votes. State Sen. Laura Richardson waited 17 days to be announced the victor of a hotly contested race in South Los Angeles two years later.
Los Angeles County ballots
Los Angeles County has become known for its exceptionally slow election results because of how many ballots it handles. Universal vote-by-mail adds steps because mail-in ballots must be inspected and signatures verified, and California law requires election officials to notify voters and give them a chance to fix a missing or mismatched signature.
Ballots postmarked on or before Election Day can still be accepted for up to seven days after the election, which can keep the count moving after polls close. An unprecedented second-place tie in Northern California forced a recount that took almost two months to sort out that same year, another example of how long California races can remain unsettled.
Tracy Hernandez on patience
Hernandez said the slower pace should not be read as a warning sign. She called it "healthy," and said it "should result in more Californians being able to vote." Election watchdogs say slower results do not inherently point to problems or fraud, and Tuesday’s primary was expected to test the patience of political junkies as the tight races stayed open.
For voters waiting on the governor and L.A. mayor contests, the practical takeaway is straightforward: the count may keep changing for days, and the final top-two lineup for November’s general election may not be set until midweek.
