House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on Monday that the California mayoral race result “stinks to high heaven” as the state’s vote-counting process drags on nearly a week after the primary.President Donald Trump had previously said on social media that the race is “rigged” and called California a “3rd World Nation.”Nearly a week after California’s primary, the Los Angeles mayoral results still remain up in the air with incumbent Mayor Karen Bass advancing to the November election and Republican actor Spencer Pratt and progressive City Council member Nithya Raman vying for the second-place spot.
Recent ballot drops saw Raman pull into second ahead of Pratt, potentially setting up a Democrat-on-Democrat showdown in the fall.
Johnson stopped short of calling the results rigged but lamented the slow pace at which California counts its ballots. California is a vote-by-mail state, meaning every registered voter is mailed a ballot. Election officials have 30 days from Election Day to process certain ballot types, according to the secretary of state, and mail ballots received within a week of Election Day are valid.
“They are counting votes weeks after the election,” Johnson told CNN. “We have entire nations, with huge populations like India, that can count their votes in 24 to 48 hours.”
