Los Angeles County’s Nov. 10 tally put Jose Ugarte at 19,200 votes and Estuardo Mazariegos at 19,044 in the race for the city’s District 9 council seat. That’s a lead of 156 out of 38,244 votes recorded for the two candidates in the Nov. 3 election, a gap of about 0.41 percentage points. The result is unofficial until certification.
The county’s update reported counting 22,866 more ballots across Los Angeles County and estimated that 37,500 remained to be processed and counted. The registrar explained in its Nov. 9 update that it reports those estimates countywide because ballots arrive and are processed in batches from across the county. The district tally tells voters how far apart the candidates are. The county estimate can’t tell them how many votes are left in this race or how those votes might break.
What voters can still do. Nov. 10 was the receipt deadline for mail ballots postmarked by Election Day. A missing or mismatched signature on the return envelope has a separate deadline. Voters can check their mail ballot status with the county. If the county flags a signature problem, follow the notice and return the signature form so the county receives it by 5 p.m. Pacific on Nov. 25.
The registrar lists the next tally update for Friday, Nov. 13, at 4 p.m. Pacific and schedules county certification for Nov. 27.