If you want people to have faith in elections, you must conduct them in a transparent and timely fashion. It is the opposite of what California does, which is why the conspiracy theories about California’s elections cannot simply be dismissed as wild and unfounded.
The Los Angeles mayoral race will be decided in a runoff between two Democrats, incumbent Karen Bass and progressive challenger Nithya Raman. Spencer Pratt, the only prominent non-Democrat in the race, fell out of the top two after a dramatic surge of late-counted ballots for Raman. Pratt was significantly ahead of Raman on election night (an 8-point lead, putting him closer to passing Bass than being passed by Raman), so much so that Raman was crying at her election watch party in a display reminiscent of candidates who know they lost. Even with Democrats benefiting most from mail-in ballots, Raman crushed Bass (who, again, has the advantage of incumbency) along with Pratt among the late ballot dumps.
To quote at 7:01: "We may not get an answer we like."From that point on, Raman thanks her campaign staff and volunteers…exclusively using that past tense.Stuff like "I'm so proud TO HAVE BEEN in this fight [capitalization added for emphasis]" at 8:35.— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) June 8, 2026
