Early results continue to suggest three Los Angeles County supervisors will retain their seats after fending off several challengers.
Unofficial results, updated March 6 at 5 p.m., from Tuesday’s election showed Supervisors Janice Hahn captured 55.6 percent, Holly Mitchell claimed 66.2 percent, and Kathryn Barger, 59.8 percent of the vote.
Candidates receiving more than 50 percent of the vote are automatically elected to the office.
Los Angeles County still has uncounted vote-by-mail ballots. On Wednesday, an additional 105,717 ballots were processed, bringing the total election turnout to 17.9 percent, according to the registrar’s office.
California elections law allows voters to mail a ballot on election day, which means the county could receive them up to seven days after the election is over.
“The majority of outstanding vote-by-mail ballots were returned yesterday,” the county registrar’s spokesman Mike Sanchez told California Insider. “Right now, our office is working diligently to get those numbers.”
A preliminary estimate of outstanding ballots to be processed is 355,500, but that is expected to increase as the county continues to receive mailed ballots this week, the registrar’s office reported Wednesday night.
The uncounted ballots could make a difference in the District 4 race between incumbent Ms. Hahn, former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, and Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank.
Mr. Villanueva, 61, placed second in the race, with 30 percent of the vote, per today’s updated results. He said additional ballots received in the coming days could chip away at Ms. Hahn’s lead and bring her under the 50-percent mark to trigger a runoff in the general election.
“If the trends continue, we’re going to get her under 50 percent,” Mr. Villanueva told California Insider Wednesday. “There’s going to be a runoff.”
Mr. Cruikshank, the only Republican in the race, has received 14.6 percent of the vote, as of Wednesday afternoon.
Ms. Hahn, 71, is running for her third and final term as supervisor. Her campaign focused on the homelessness crisis and mental health issues. She also promoted her efforts to improve public safety and emergency response and to reduce gun violence.
Supervisor Mitchell, 59, who was elected in 2020, defended her seat against a trio of challengers: Clint Carlton, founder of Safe Squad Inc.; Daphne Bradford, an education consultant; and Katrina Williams, CEO of Changing the Faces of Homelessness.
Ms. Bradford came in a distant second with 13.5 percent of the vote.
Ms. Mitchell ran on tackling homelessness, dealing with the housing crisis, and transit safety.
speaks to the media in Los Angeles on April 1, 2021. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Incumbent Supervisor Ms. Barger, 63, was first elected in 2016 to represent District 5 and was challenged by Perry Goldberg, an attorney and founder of ThriveLA; Chris Holden, a state Assemblyman since 2012 representing Pasadena; Konstantine Anthony, a member of the Burbank City Council since 2020 and the first autistic mayor in the city; and Marlon Marroquin, a crime analysis technician.
Updated results Wednesday showed Ms. Barger continuing to lead in the race. Mr. Holden remained in second place with 20.7 percent.
The county’s supervisor seats are nonpartisan. Incumbent supervisors haven’t lost a reelection bid in 44 years.
Despite the uncounted ballots, voter turnout for Tuesday’s primary was significantly low.
In Los Angeles County, only about 911,000 ballots—or 16 percent of registered voters—were recorded as of Tuesday night, and 66 percent of those were mailed in, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar.
Of those who voted in Los Angeles County, nearly 54 percent identified as Democrats, 29 percent were Republicans, and 10 percent were non-partisan. The remainder represented various smaller parties, including Libertarian, American Independent, Peace and Freedom, and Green parties.
Only 18 percent of voters turned out statewide, according to early results from the California Secretary of State’s office.
