What We Know About Potential ‘Cheating’ in L.A. Mayor Race as Spencer Pratt Falls to Third Place

Former reality star Spencer Pratt’s once promising lead over Los Angeles councilwoman Nithya Raman to make the runoff in November evaporated over the weekend as California’s notoriously slow vote count dragged on with one blue wave of ballot drops after another. 

The Vote Count

Last Tuesday, on the actual Election Day, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass led the night but failed to clinch the more than 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. Pratt ended the night in what looked like a clear second place with 30.4 percent of the vote, while Raman finished with 22.4 percent.

Addressing supporters on Election Night, Raman sounded like a candidate bracing for the end. “Many thousands of votes will be counted in the days ahead, and we may not get an answer we like,” she said. “But regardless of what happens next, nobody, nobody can take away what all of us have built together.”

By the weekend, however, the race looked very different due to hundreds of thousands of ballots still outstanding. In California, mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day can still be counted if they arrive up to a week later, meaning the numbers can keep shifting for days after voters leave the polls. 

Raman began making up ground in the first major post-election vote count update, with the councilwoman outperforming Pratt among newly counted ballots on Wednesday and Thursday. Throughout the weekend, the gap continued to narrow. Raman won the Saturday ballot drop – not only beating Pratt but even outpacing Bass – taking 40 percent of the newly counted Los Angeles City vote to Bass’s 33 percent and Pratt’s 18 percent. 

By Sunday night’s update, Raman officially surpassed Pratt and moved into second place.

The Controversy

According to The Los Angeles Times, the late count trend was not a surprise to election analysts who expected Raman to gain ground as mail-in ballots came in, reporting, “many left-of-center voters, Raman’s base, held on to their mail-in ballots into the last minute as they waited to choose between Democratic gubernatorial candidates.” 

The outlet also reported that younger, more progressive voters tend to hold on to their ballots longer generally. The Times also noted that while the L.A. mayor’s race is officially nonpartisan, Pratt is a registered Republican running in an overwhelmingly Democratic city.

At the gubernatorial level, it appears as though Republican Steve Hilton will move on to face Democrat Xavier Becerra in November, but that hasn’t stopped the lengthy counting from coming under intense scrutiny. 

After suggesting there may be “cheating” going on, President Donald Trump abruptly ended an interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker taped Friday after she pressed him on the election results. And the controversy and calls for reform has only continued.

The Latest Allegations

On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by writer and media strategist Buckley Carlson to discuss the allegations of impropriety and why the California voting laws cause so much concern. Watch:

You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Carlson by tuning in to episode 1,335 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.