Spencer Pratt Taunts Karen Bass As Election Results Trickle In
California’s election results are still coming in from the June 2 primary.
Making matters even more worrisome, Democratic leaders in the state claim it could take weeks to count all the ballots.
But in the Los Angeles mayoral contest, incumbent Democrat Karen Bass didn’t crack the 51% needed to win outright, setting up a runoff in November.
More importantly, there is a battle between Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV personality and Republican, and Nithya Raman, a City Council member and Democrat.
Pratt is projecting confidence that he will beat Raman to make the runoff against Bass — but he’s also confident Bass will be an easy opponent.
“Are you going to debate Karen Bass again?” a reporter asked Pratt. “And what do you want to tell her if she sees this?”
“You know, I loved debating her on NBC. I look forward to a couple more on NBC and Fox. We can do debates every Friday if she would like because this actually became my most favorite thing to do,” Pratt responded.
“I hope she’s ready, because I literally could not be more excited,” he added.
“It is usually a good thing for a politician, Dave, to debate the dumbest people around them. So I think Spencer Pratt is in a good position here,” Stu says.
“It has helped a lot of people in the past. So I think it’s a very good idea,” co-host Dave Landau agrees, though he adds, “unfortunately, in California, I’m not sure if it’s going to help.”
“Yeah, it’s still going to be tough in Los Angeles for Spencer Pratt to win because when you have a situation where it’s two Democrats and one Republican, their votes get kind of split up,” Stu says.
“When you go the opposite way, and you have one Republican versus one Democrat, it’s very difficult to win in a city like this, especially in an election time that’s probably going to be pretty difficult for Republicans generally,” he continues.
“Pratt though is looking at this positively, Dave. He’s trying to take a positive spin on what is to come here in the next few months,” he adds.
In an interview following the latest election results, Pratt exclaimed that “obviously God wanted five more months” of him “exposing all the failures of our mayor.”
“So it’s going to be a fun ride. I hope she’s ready,” he said, adding that he was “born for this.”
Pratt finished Election Night with 30.4 percent of the vote.
Pratt is well ahead of progressive City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who trailed at 22.3 percent.
Yet despite an eight-point gap and hundreds of thousands of ballots already counted, officials and media outlets continue describing the race as too close to call.
As additional ballots have been processed, Pratt’s lead has narrowed somewhat, though he remains comfortably ahead.
The latest vote update shows Pratt at 29.4 percent compared to Raman’s 23.4 percent, leaving him with a six-point advantage.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass remains in first place with roughly 35 percent of the vote and is all but certain to advance to the November runoff.
The battle now centers on whether Raman can somehow erase Pratt’s substantial lead and capture the second runoff spot.
Election officials say hundreds of thousands of ballots may still remain uncounted. Based on historical voting patterns, many analysts expect those ballots to lean more Democratic than the votes counted thus far.
That possibility has fueled speculation that Raman could eventually catch Pratt.
But even supporters of that theory acknowledge there is no guarantee current trends will continue.
What is clear is that vote counting is expected to continue for days.
Additional ballot reports are scheduled daily through at least June 12, while ballots postmarked by Election Day can still be accepted if they arrive by June 9.
LA County Vote-Counting Facility Full Of Empty Desks Despite $336M Budget
The California Post visited the county’s 144,000-square-foot ballot processing facility on Thursday, and what they found has concerned many.
The NY Post reporters saw dozens of vacant workstations as the vote-count totals sprawled throughout California and Los Angeles.
The growing pressure to process the hundreds of thousands of remaining ballots seemed to be at odds with the scene at the warehouse.
Just 77,521 more ballots have been processed since the June 2 election night, according to county officials’ announcement on Wednesday night. However, an estimated 713,180 ballots remain unprocessed.
However, a lot of the facility seemed understaffed when The Post visited. Workstations in rows were vacant.
There were several empty chair sections.
About 25 bins of ballots appeared ready for processing in one area where election workers review ballots that scanners are unable to automatically read.
However, no employees were seated at nearby desks, according to the NY Post reporters.
The Post reporters saw roughly 75 workers in another area where they prepare ballots for counting and open envelopes, even though the space could hold more than twice that number.
CA governor frontrunner Steve Hilton said Thursday he would urge Governor Gavin Newsom to create an Emergency Election Count Accelerator Corps, mobilizing state personnel and rapid response teams to assist counties struggling with major ballot-counting backlogs.
“California is the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to election reporting. We are the fourth-largest economy in the world, home to Silicon Valley and some of the most advanced technology on earth, yet government bureaucrats need a month to count fewer than 10 million ballots,” Hilton said.
Hilton intended to present a strategy that would provide counties with more personnel and resources to expedite the counting of ballots without interfering with election laws, security procedures, or vote-counting guidelines.
The Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office is under scrutiny because Los Angeles County spends almost $336 million a year on it.
The department has more than 1,100 budgeted positions, according to county budget records.
According to county records, Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan heads the department, manages the elections, and earns $448,179 annually.
By all standards, the election process in Los Angeles County is massive.
President Donald Trump also aimed at California’s slow count with a social media post.
“The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS,” he posted on Truth Social.
“There is a lot of misinformation floating around about California’s election — including from the President,” the post read, while sharing an explainer video from CNN on the counting efforts, Gavin Newsom’s office posted on X in a response.
“And yes, for the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too,” the post concluded.
The voter rolls in Los Angeles County exceed 5.8 million people, more registered voters than the populations of most US states.
The Post asked the Registrar’s Office how many employees are currently assigned to ballot processing, whether staffing vacancies exist, why numerous workstations appeared empty despite the large backlog, and whether additional staffing could accelerate the count.
When at the facility, The Post asked an election center staff member about the rows of unused workstations despite a massive ballot backlog.
The employee warned the NY Post reporters not to be “fooled by what you see.”
When pressed to elaborate, the staff member offered no further explanation and walked away.
Several other states that also held elections on Tuesday have nearly finished counting.
New Jersey has reported roughly 93% of ballots counted, while New Mexico and Montana are approaching 98%.
May you like
The upcoming update on the ballot count in Los Angeles County is expected Thursday evening, but with more than 700,000 ballots still outstanding, experts say it could be weeks before voters know which candidates will advance to the November ballot.
