Mayor Bass signs executive directive on 7/11/2025 (Photo: https://mayor.lacity.gov/press)
More Votes Cast for LA Mayor Than Governor in Every City Council District, Data Shows
Pratt eliminated as Raman advances to runoff
By Megan Barth, June 9, 2026 9:21 am
Updated preliminary results from California’s primary election continue to highlight an unusual pattern in Los Angeles: more ballots cast in the local mayoral race than in the statewide gubernatorial contest across every single City Council district.
The analysis, compiled by redistricting and political data expert Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc. (PDI), compares vote totals for the LA mayoral primary against the governor’s race in all 15 districts. The pattern persists even as more ballots are counted, with mayoral votes consistently outpacing gubernatorial ones.
Latest figures as of June 8-9 (with approximately 92-93% of expected votes tabulated) show:
- Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass advancing strongly with 275,992 votes (34.3%).
- DSA City Councilmember Nithya Raman surging into second place with 229,576 votes (28.5%).
- Reality TV star Spencer Pratt eliminated from contention with 207,757 votes (25.8%), trailing Raman by roughly 21,819 votes.
Raman is losing her own district (CD 4) and also more people are voting for mayor than for governor. Does that make sense? https://t.co/O5rrmUvVHR
— Josh Rainer (@JoshRainerGold) June 7, 2026
Pratt, a Republican and former star of “The Hills,” held a strong second-place position on Election Night based on in-person and early votes. However, as Los Angeles County processed subsequent drops of mail ballots, Raman steadily gained ground and overtook him. The late-count surge, heavily favoring socialist Raman, flipped the race for the second runoff spot.
With no candidate reaching 50%, Bass and Raman will face off in the November general election runoff. Pratt’s elimination ends a spirited outsider campaign that drew national attention for highlighting issues like homelessness, wildfire recovery, crime, and infrastructure failures in Los Angeles.
This anomaly in district-level turnout remains striking. Examples from Mitchell’s breakdown include consistent edges for the mayoral race by hundreds to thousands of votes in districts such as 3, 4, and 11.
The gubernatorial primary, featuring high-profile candidates including Xavier Becerra (D, leading), Steve Hilton (R), and Tom Steyer (D), remains fluid at the statewide level but still trails local mayoral engagement in LA’s council districts. Standard voter behavior typically favors higher participation in top-of-ticket statewide races, making this reversal noteworthy.
Mitchell, Vice President of Political Data Inc. and principal of Redistricting Partners, is a veteran California elections data analyst. He previously served as the lead mapmaker for the congressional redistricting plan approved by voters via Proposition 50 in 2025, a measure that redrew district lines to reflect population shifts and prioritize Hispanic demographic growth.
Beyond raw turnout, Mitchell’s side-by-side data reveals unusual voter preference divergences. Certain districts showed strong support for Bass/Pratt in the mayoral contest but favored different combinations (e.g., Steyer/Becerra) in the governor’s race. These crossovers underscore questions about voter priorities—hyper-local issues like homelessness, crime, and housing versus Sacramento politics.
Statewide primary turnout remains low, with LA County around 32% as of recent updates. Yet the mayoral race appears to have driven (or recorded) higher marked ballots in these key areas. With roughly 148,000 votes still outstanding countywide, final certification is pending, but the district-level pattern holds in available data.
Election officials attribute shifts to standard mail-ballot processing under California law. However, the consistent mayoral-over-governor turnout, combined with the dramatic late movement that eliminated Pratt, has fueled ongoing controversies and questions about ballot harvesting, bullet voting, and the timing of drops.
President Donald Trump criticized California’s “rigged elections,” predicting that Steve Hilton will suffer Pratt’s fate.
California Globe will track final canvassing, any audits, and statements from the Secretary of State. In an era of heightened scrutiny, voters deserve full transparency on why local races seemingly out-engaged the governor’s contest in Los Angeles districts, and how Pratt’s early lead evaporated in the final counts. The numbers demand explanation.
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The smell of this is incredible, those ballots need to be tossed. Obviously no Gubernatorial candidate paid for this or they would have been on those ballots too. It’s quite obvious who paid for this, and their campaign needs Harmeet Dillon to look at their expenses very closely. It could have been done by an outside group, but that would require a Quid pro quo at some point. We have no one to blame but ourselves, for allowing thousands upon thousands of official ballots to be just floating around to be “Harvested”
How could more ballots been cast in the local LA mayoral race than in the statewide gubernatorial contest across every single City Council district without there being major voter fraud going on?
No doubt the LA Democrat machine was behind Karen Bass, but maybe more focus needs to be on Nithya Raman and her DSA thug supporters? Maybe the focus should also be on LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan who has been involved in significant election related controversies primarily centered on allegations of election mismanagement and a lack of transparency. Most recently in June 2026, his office dealt with election interference incidents, including burned mail-in ballots and vandalized vote centers. Logan faced accusations in 2022 of malfeasance and obstruction for refusing to allow outside observers during signature verification for the recall of District Attorney George Gascón, with organizers alleging the use of outdated signature standards to disqualify petitions. Logan has been criticized for slow vote counts and specific ballot design flaws, such as the “double-bubble” error in 2008 that initially left 50,000 ballots uncounted.
Before joining Los Angeles County, Dean Logan was the Director of Records, Elections and Licensing Services in King County, Washington, during the highly contentious 2004 gubernatorial race between Republican Gov.-elect Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire. The initial count showed Rossi had won by 261 votes, triggering a mandatory machine recount. The recount ended with Rossi ahead by 42 votes. A few days later, Logan’s office found 336 more ballots not previously counted, prompting Washington state Democrats to call for a hand recount. In the ensuing weeks, Logan’s office said it found more uncounted ballots and ultimately Gregoire won by 129 votes. Afterward, Logan’s office released records showing 450 people who had voted were not registered voters and that hundreds of provisional ballots were fed into voting machines without verification and by mistake, making it impossible to authenticate their legality.
Despite watchdog protests regarding Dean Logan’s questionable history in King County and his lack of a college degree at the time, the Democrats on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors unanimously appointed Dean Logan as Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk in 2008 and he’s been there ever since and possibly helping to rig elections?
It’s unbelievable how corrupt LA County is? Dean Logan is the Democrat’s election rigging stooge?
How much longer are the docile complacent Republicans going to allow themselves to be played.
Clearly Hilton a double agent shill.
You dedicated Republicans have paved your own road to hell.
https://www.latimes.com/california/live/live-updates-june-primary-election-2026
A Newsom troll like Eyeinthesky should know, so tell us how Hilton is clearly a double agent shill?
BTW, only a Newsom troll would bother reading a far left propaganda rag like the LA Times.
Republican Steve Hilton hasn’t seen evidence of election rigging in California’s race for governor
You and your likes pathetic TJ:
Milquetoast failed defenders of America and California
Hilton expressed confidence in the ongoing investigations by U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and the FBI. He has criticized California’s election system and called for voter ID reform.
Hilton was never my choice but he’d be a definite improvement over Xavier Becerra and the rest of the Democrat clowns whom you’ve never once criticized. Now run along pathetic Newsom troll.
“L.A. Skid Row Homeless Claim They’ve Been Paid to Vote for Karen Bass and Nithya Raman”
https://nypost.com/2026/06/09/us-news/la-skid-row-homeless-claim-theyve-been-paid-to-vote-for-karen-bass-and-nithya-raman/
Certainly smells like rotten eggs!