by WorldTribune Staff, June 3, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

The credibility of California’s election system is in question as voters cast ballots in a gubernatorial primary that may not produce definitive results for days or even weeks.

And then there is L.A.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had secured enough votes to advance to the November runoff. Independent candidate Spencer Pratt had closed the gap and has a solid hold on the second spot in the runoff.

With 60% of the vote counted, Bass led with 172,720 votes (34.8%) to Pratt’s 151,149 votes (30.4%). Leftist Democrat Nithya Raman brought up the rear at 110,848 votes (22.3%).

But more than 300,000 ballots have yet to be counted, most of them mail-in.

The question remains, can California Democrats find enough votes for Raman in those ballots to keep Pratt from advancing?

Vote-counting continues well beyond Election Day as election officials process mail ballots received after polls close.

Public confidence in California elections is sharply divided along partisan lines.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized California’s election procedures, especially its widespread reliance on mail voting.

Adding to questions about election security was an incident in Humboldt County in which hundreds of ballots from a local election were discovered after certification.

California used the Covid pandemic as an excuse to send all registered voters a mail-in ballot, which is valid as long as it is postmarked by Election Day and arrives within seven days of the election. Those ballots must be verified before they can be counted.

The state also has generous windows to allow voters to fix errors in ballots.

California’s long grace period is in jeopardy as the Supreme Court considers a change that would mean states can only count mail-in ballots that arrive by Election Day.

California has open primaries, with candidates from all parties vying for the top two spots to advance to a runoff, unless one candidate gets 50% of the vote, which will not happen in the LA mayoral race or in the race to replace Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom.

As of Wednesday afternoon, in the primary for governor, Republican Steve Hilton leads (27.8%) with Democrat Xavier Becerra (25.4%) in second. That is with 54.4% of the vote counted.

Democrats Tom Steyer is third at 19.6% and Republican Chad Bianco is fourth at 11.3%. Democrat Rep. Katie Porter is a distant fifth at 4.6%.

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  Democrats need mail-in ballots to keep Spencer Pratt from runoff, WorldTribune.com