BREAKING: Nithya Raman advances to LA mayoral election against Bass, Spencer Pratt shut out after late mail-in vote surge

Nithya Raman has advanced in Los Angeles' mayoral election and will go on to face incumbent Karen Bass in November's election, per the Associated Press. This comes after Raman, a member of the city council, surged ahead of challenger Spencer Pratt nearly a week after Election Day, as mail-in ballots continue to be tallied. 

With 93 percent of the vote in as of Monday evening, Raman had received 28.6 percent of the vote to Pratt's 25.8. Bass was announced as the first candidate to advance on June 3. Around 22,000 votes separate Raman and Pratt as of that count. 

Raman surged ahead of Pratt over the weekend, who had been leading Raman in the days after the election. During Pratt's campaign, he took aim at Bass, who has been mayor of the city since 2022, and her handling of the devastating wildfires that resulted in the loss of he and many others' homes in the city, as well as her handling of crime and homelessness. 

California has faced backlash from Republicans over how long it takes to count votes, with Trump writing, "They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS."  
 

US Attorney for California Bill Essayli has said that California "allows first-time voters to register" to vote using gym membership cards, employer ID cards, credit or debit cards, prescription drug labels, and insurance cards, and that the state is blocking a federal audit of its voter rolls. "We also have serious concerns about how California maintains its voter rolls. There are open questions about whether the state is promptly removing deceased voters, people who have moved, and individuals convicted of disqualifying felonies. On top of that, California allows third parties to collect and turn in ballots on voters’ behalf (a practice known as ballot harvesting) with few restrictions. This makes it difficult to track who actually received, completed, and submitted each ballot," he wrote.