The California governor’s race remained unsettled Thursday, as state election officials continued to sift through uncounted primary ballots – a process that could take days or even weeks as voters eagerly await the results.
Polls indicated that British-born conservative pundit Steve Hilton was narrowly leading the race, followed by former US health and human services secretary Xavier Becerra. Billionaire Tom Steyer trailed behind the pair. Under California’s primary system, the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election.
The question of which two will face off in November may be unanswered for weeks, according to election officials. Per state law, California counties must finish counting ballots by 15 June, but certain ballots are exempt from that deadline. For example, mail-in ballots postmarked by election day and received by 9 June are valid and can be processed beyond the deadline.
An estimate of the number of remaining unprocessed ballots is expected on Thursday. Faced with a crowded slate of gubernatorial contenders, many Democratic voters held on to their mail-in ballots until election day as they weighed which candidate had the best chance of reaching one of the top two slots.
The ongoing tabulation also did not stop Donald Trump from declaring victory for his favored candidate.
“Congratulations to Steve Hilton on coming in first, last night, in the California Vote for Governor,” he wrote in a Wednesday Truth Social post. “If Californians are smart, which I know they are, they will put Steve into the Governor’s Mansion, and watch their State get better at a rate that has probably never been seen before.”
Meanwhile, Becerra appeared in high spirits at a watch party on Tuesday night. He likened himself to an underdog, alluding to his more modest odds at the start of the race and challenger Antonio Villaraigosa’s call for him to drop out.
“It is the people – only the people – who get the last word,” he said to supporters. “While I take nothing for granted, there are lots of ballots left to be counted, it appears that we are on track to advance to November.”
Steyer’s team, acknowledging his position behind Hilton and Becerra in early returns, urged patience with the vote-counting process.
“There’s still a lot that remains to be seen and we’re going to give democracy time to work,” Steyer campaign manager Heather Hargreaves wrote in a Wednesday letter to supporters.
As the slow voting process continues to play out, some conservative commentators have promoted unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. Mail-in ballots, which tend to skew Democratic, have been subject to Republican criticism, while Trump has issued an executive order aiming to curb their use nationally.
After polls closed on Tuesday, the California secretary of state, Shirley Weber, asked voters to exercise patience. “California elections officials prioritize the right to vote and election security over rushing the vote count,” she said.
The slow vote-counting follows a lengthy and crowded race to lead California. At one point at least 10 Democrats were hoping to replace Gavin Newsom. The chair of the state Democratic party repeatedly urged candidates without a “viable path” to win to drop out, with little success.
Meanwhile, this year’s election has already amounted to the most expensive governor’s race on record, with nearly $316m spent on ads, according to an analysis by AdImpact. The majority of that – about 64% of every dollar spent – came from Tom Steyer, whose campaign dropped more than $200m, according to the analysis. Steyer alone spent more than the total spending in the last two gubernatorial contests and the race was the fifth-most expensive contest of any non-presidential race.
Voters across the state are still awaiting the results in multiple contests, including the Los Angeles mayor’s race, where Karen Bass has advanced to the runoff while former reality TV star Spencer Pratt and progressive city councillor Nithya Raman are battling it out for second place.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
