The Votes Are In!
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Politics Nov 11, 2022
| Photo courtesy of btwashburn/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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After gaining on Rick Caruso since the ballots began being tallied in the race for Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass took over the lead in Friday afternoon’s latest update.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk posted the current count — 4:09 p.m. Friday — with Bass having collected 289,782 votes to Caruso’s 285,398, for a lead of 50.38% to 49.62%.
Hundreds of thousands of ballots still remain uncounted, however, and a winner might not be determined for days or even weeks. Further updates will be announced every Tuesday and Friday until all ballots are tallied.
Sarah Leonard Sheahan, Bass’ communications director, said in a statement after Thursday’s results that the campaign was confident Bass would eventually prevail.
“In the coming days, the voice of the people of Los Angeles will be heard and we feel confident that we will win,” Sheahan said.
“As predicted, this is a close race,” Caruso said. “There are hundreds of thousands of votes to count and as expected we are going to see different results each time. I continue to be cautiously optimistic about these numbers and look forward to the next series of results in the coming weeks.”
Bass, a six-term member of Congress, is seeking to become the first woman and only the second Black person to lead Los Angeles. Caruso, a billionaire developer, is looking to win a campaign that’s on track to spend over $100 million — much of it from Caruso’s own fortune — to propel him into contention.
Bass or Caruso will inherit leadership of a city grappling with a scandal that has embroiled City Hall for the past month, after three council members and a top county labor official took part in a leaked conversation in October 2021 that included racist comments and attempts to manipulate redistricting.
