Los Angeles mayor race in dead heat as early results put Bass at 50.9%, Raman at 49.1%

The Los Angeles mayoral race was in a dead heat as results came in on the night of November 3. Early figures released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Office put incumbent Mayor Karen Bass narrowly ahead with 289,671 votes, or 50.9%, against City Councilwoman Nithya Raman's 279,068 votes, or 49.1% - a gap of roughly 10,000 votes. (Cover photo is a file photo of Los Angeles City Hall, not election night.)

What the first batches counted, and what comes next

The first batches of results represented a tally of all vote-by-mail ballots that were returned and processed prior to Tuesday, along with in-person ballots cast at vote centers prior to Election Day. Ballot counting is expected to continue through the night and into the coming days and weeks, including Election Day ballots and mailed ballots still arriving, so the winner could remain unknown well into November. Neither campaign has declared victory.

The race was tied before Election Day too

The contest was neck-and-neck going into Election Day. A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, released last week, found both candidates at 40% support among likely Los Angeles voters, with 19% still undecided. Bass is seeking a second term leading the second-largest city in the nation; Raman is a sitting city councilwoman and a former Bass ally. In the June 2 primary, neither candidate cleared the 50% threshold to win outright (Bass 34.3%, Raman 29.0%), sending the race to the November 3 runoff.