The Votes Are In!
2024 Readers' Choice is back, bigger and better than ever!
View Winners → Politics Apr 07, 2023
A voting center. | Photo courtesy of LA County Registrar-Recorder
by
share with
By Jose Herrera
In the special election to fill the Los Angeles City Council seat vacated by Nury Martinez, community relations manager Imelda Padilla maintained her lead Friday while Marisa Alcaraz pulled ahead in the close race for second.
According to updated election results released by the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, Padilla had a total of 3,421 votes, or 25.69%, of the ballots counted in the District 6 race. Alcaraz was second with 2,812 votes, or 21.12%. Marco Santana was third with 2,515 votes, or 18.89%. Rose Grigoryan was fourth, with 1,980 votes, or 14.87%.
According to the county, there are only 99 vote-by-mail ballots left to be tallied from the special election, along with any additional mail ballots that are received by next Tuesday. With Santana trailing by roughly 300 votes, it appears unlikely he will be able to catch Alcaraz.
With no candidate scoring a majority of votes, the top two vote-getters — likely Padilla and Alcaraz — will advance to a June 27 runoff.
Small business owner Issac Kim was the only other candidate in the field of seven to top 10%, with 1,452 votes, or 10.90%.
Turnout was low, with initial returns released Tuesday including 9,085 ballots cast, or 7.67% of the 118,473 voters registered in the District 6. The initial tally included 8,301 ballots from voters by mail and 784 ballots from in-person vote centers.
Friday’s vote update added 4,398 ballots — 88 in-person and 4,310 by mail. That lifted the overall total to 13,483 ballots cast, or just 11.38% of registered voters in the district.
According to the registrar, the majority of the 99 ballots remaining to be counted are pending signatures cures from voters who signature was missing on the return envelope or did not mach their registration record. Those voters have been notified with instructions on how to correct their ballot.
The next voting update will be Tuesday.
Council District 6 consists of Van Nuys, Arleta, Lake Balboa, Panorama City, Sun Valley and the eastern portions of North Hills and North Hollywood.
Martinez represented the district until October, when she resigned her council presidency and then, two days later, her seat altogether. Her resignations came in the wake of Martinez being caught making racist comments in a meeting that was secretly taped and leaked to the news media.
Former Councilman Gil Cedillo was also in that meeting, along with Councilman Kevin de León and Ron Herrera, president of the LA County Federation of Labor. Herrera also resigned his post, while Cedillo ultimately left the council at the end of his term after losing his bid for reelection in June.
De León has defied continued calls for his resignation but has been stripped by the council of major committee assignments and largely shunned by council colleagues.
The 6th District is being overseen by a nonvoting caretaker, the city’s chief legislative analyst, Sharon Tso. A nonvoting caretaker does not hold a seat on the council, but oversees the council office to make sure the district provides constituent services and other basic functions.
The winner of the special election will finish Martinez’s term, which ends in December 2024.
More from Politics
