Late Ballots Flip LA Power

voting booth with American flag graphics — Photo: Rob Crandall / Shutterstock

Late-arriving ballots pushed Nithya Raman past Spencer Pratt and set up a Karen Bass–Raman runoff in Los Angeles, reshaping a race many polls called too close to call earlier.

Story Snapshot

High shares of undecided voters made the race volatile through spring polling.
Election updates showed Nithya Raman steadily gaining on and then passing Spencer Pratt.
Final certified-style tallies put Karen Bass first, Raman second, Pratt third.
Later-counted mail ballots trended more favorable to Bass and Raman than early returns.

What Changed As Ballots Were Counted

County updates after Election Day showed steady movement toward Nithya Raman. Los Angeles election authorities released batches that cut Spencer Pratt’s edge, then flipped it as more mail ballots were processed over several days. The Associated Press and other outlets later reported Raman moved into second and extended her margin over Pratt as counts continued. This pattern tracked with the city’s vote-by-mail rules, which allow ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive and be counted later.

Interactive precinct maps and vote updates indicated later ballots leaned left of the earliest tallies. The New York Times’ precinct analysis noted that as ballots received on Wednesday through Friday were processed, updates looked more favorable for Democrats in the city, lifting Karen Bass and Raman relative to earlier counts. That late tilt, combined with incoming volume, explains how a tight three-way field shifted toward a Bass–Raman runoff without any single dramatic drop.

Where The Numbers Landed

Official-style summaries from major outlets showed Karen Bass finishing first, Nithya Raman second, and Spencer Pratt third once most ballots were counted. Reported totals clustered around Bass near the mid-thirties, Raman near the high twenties, and Pratt near the mid-twenties in percentage terms. That ordering matched the direction of daily updates, which had Bass holding a lead while Raman erased and then surpassed Pratt’s share. Media tallies tracked the registrar’s releases throughout the week.

Earlier in the cycle, multiple polls captured a fluid race with large undecided shares. A March report highlighted that roughly half of voters had not chosen a candidate, signaling big potential swings as Election Day neared. A separate academic poll echoed that volatility, finding about 40 percent undecided with Bass leading a fragmented field. In late May, a University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles Times survey showed Bass, Raman, and Pratt bunched within a few points, reinforcing the idea that small shifts could reorder the top three.

How To Read Claims About “Voter Shifts”

Analysts often describe late changes as one group of supporters “moving” to another candidate. In this race, stronger evidence suggests consolidation among late-deciding voters and timing effects from mail ballot returns, rather than a clean transfer from Pratt voters to Bass or Raman. Large undecided pools, a split field, and day-by-day mail processing can create the same outcome without direct voter switching at scale. The bottom line is the finish reflected late engagement and return patterns more than a single bloc breaking.

For residents, the policy stakes are concrete: homelessness, public safety, cost of living, and basic city services drove most debates. Voters from left and right share worries that leaders spend more time campaigning than fixing root problems. The count’s slow, rule-bound process can feel distant from daily struggles. But the mechanics here were straightforward: many waited to vote, many mailed late, and those ballots leaned toward candidates promising bigger shifts at City Hall.