LA Mayoral Election: Bass Trims Caruso's Lead; Race Still Deadlocked

LOS ANGELES -- Karen Bass trimmed Rick Caruso's lead in the race to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, according to updated election returns released today by the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

Bass trailed Caruso Thursday by just under 2,700 votes -- down from a 12,000-vote deficit early Wednesday morning, when the clerk's office last released an update. An additional 134,099 vote-by-mail ballots returned through Election Day were added to the vote count Thursday afternoon, bringing the total ballots counted to 1,452,192.

The next update is scheduled for Friday afternoon, with subsequent updates every Tuesday and Friday until all ballots are tallied.

Caruso and Bass remain locked in a virtual 50-50 deadlock, and a winner might not be determined for days or even weeks.

Late Wednesday, the county registrar's office announced that there were roughly 1 million ballots still to be counted, though the office did not specify how many of those come from the city of Los Angeles.

-- City News Service