LOS ANGELES — Mail-in votes are helping Rep. Karen Bass pull ahead of developer Rick Caruso in the primary election for Los Angeles mayor.
Bass leads Caruso, 41% to 38%, respectively, according to results released Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
Election officials continue to count mail-in ballots, and the final tally won't be known for days or weeks. The next update from the county is expected Friday.
Both candidates are assured of a spot in the Nov. 8 run-off because they are the top-two vote-getters in the field.
Election officials said last week that a significant number of voters mailed in ballots or dropped ballots off at vote centers, a trend seen throughout California.
Caruso led Bass by 5 points after election day. That lead dropped to a point and a half on Friday as more mail-in ballots and ballots dropped off at polling stations were tallied.
Bass appeared on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart" over the weekend and predicted she would win the primary if mail-in votes continued to favor her.
"You would have thought $40 million compared to $3 million, that I would have been wiped out," Bass said, highlighting how Caruso's campaign spending overshadowed her own spending.
Political consultant Bill Carrick said that he didn't think it's significant if one candidate ends up winning the primary by a few thousand votes.
"What people are going to take away is that [the primary] was close and we're headed to a close general election," Carrick said.
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