Make It Make Sense: The elections in your neighborhood, plus other results updates

This is the Nov. 13 issue of Make It Make Sense, LAist's elections newsletter, also published on LAist, breaking down the results of the 2026 general election. Sign up here to receive issues in your inbox through the end of November.

We’ve made it through yet another week! Election Day may feel worlds away now, but plenty of races are still being sorted out. Here’s what you need to know before we all unplug for the weekend.

What happened in the election in your neighborhood?

With more than 100 cities in our region, it’s impossible to keep track of every local race. But we’re featuring a few hyperlocal highlights here that caught our eye this week, including suggestions that readers flagged for us:

• Data centers in Alhambra: Alhambra voters are resoundingly rejecting data centers. Measure DB, which would effectively ban the centers in all areas of the city, is passing with nearly 84% of the vote so far. The Alhambra City Council voted unanimously this summer to put the measure before voters on the November ballot. Alhambra becomes the second city in the state to pass a ban on data centers by public vote, after Monterey Park voters overwhelmingly passed a ban in the June primary.
• Close contests in Diamond Bar: Two of the council races in this L.A. County city are incredibly close — separated by less than 1 point. Ruben Torres is leading Steve Tye in District 1 by just 14 votes. District 4 is even tighter, with Lee Mao ahead of Chia-Yu Teng by 12 votes! Remember this whenever you feel like your voice may not matter at the ballot box.
• Neck and neck in Costa Mesa: We’re also on the edge of our seats for Orange County’s Costa Mesa race for City Council District 3, where Democrat Cara Stewart leads Republican Daniel Morgan by 327 votes. Earlier this week, only one vote separated the two.
• Fontana’s next mayor: This Inland Empire city may be in for a new mayor. Over the weekend, Jocelyn “Joz” Sida, another democratic socialist backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, took the lead by 14 votes in a packed field against four-term Republican Mayor Acquanetta Warren. That gap has since grown to over 1,600 votes. 
• Sales tax whiplash: With the rising costs of well … everything … some voters are being asked to raise their city’s sales tax. We mentioned in an earlier issue that L.A. city voters raised their combined sales tax rate to 10.75% to fund the fire department, but elsewhere in the county, Hermosa Beach residents are rejecting Measure HB (57.11%), which would add a half-percent sales tax on local purchases. It was expected to raise roughly $2 million each year for the beachfront community to keep up with public safety services and infrastructure. Meanwhile, San Gabriel residents took a different approach, so far voting to approve Measure PS (59.41%). This would increase the sales tax by 1% to support emergency response, infrastructure and schools, among others. That means San Gabriel’s sales tax is on track to rise to 12%, which would be the highest in the county.
• Schrödinger's charter city: Voters in the city of Orange are rejecting Measure K (65% “no”). In a nutshell, it would switch the city’s governing structure from a general law city to a charter city, which gives it authority to build a local constitution instead of being bound by every state rule. Opponents of the measure framed it as a way for City Council members to skirt around term limits. Meanwhile, in Rosemead in L.A. County, over 71% of voters are giving the green light to becoming a charter city under Measure RC.
• Inglewood measures still too close to call: Both of the city’s measures would have major implications for its budget (currently facing a $30 million deficit), but the outcomes aren’t quite set yet. Measure AT, which removes a cap on tax revenue to the city from SoFi Stadium and adds a new tax on tickets to Intuit Dome events, leads “yes” by only 147 votes. Measure BB, which would ban most commercial advertising on billboards and city streets, is trending toward “no” at 51.7%.

Where did the winning candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America end up?

• What's happening: The midterm elections saw a “blue tsunami” nationwide with a wave of wins for Democrats — but there’s been a deeper undercurrent locally with candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. The Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America endorsed nine candidates this past election. Seven of those candidates are winning their races, including in Los Angeles, Burbank, West Hollywood and Inglewood. Another candidate secured an appointment on a South Bay school district board, and the last race in L.A. City Council District 9 is still too close to call.
• Looking at L.A.: It was basically a DSA sweep for the biggest Los Angeles city contests. Nithya Raman will be the next mayor, and Marissa Roy won her city attorney race by a landslide. You can read more about how it’s shaking out in O.C. here, too.
• Backing in Burbank: Burbank is about to have a DSA-majority City Council, which the local chapter says is the “first one ever on the West Coast.” The DSA members up for election, Mike Van Gorder and Nolan Southerland, came in second and third out of 13 candidates. Van Gorder and Southerland will join current Councilmember Konstantine Anthony to make up the DSA majority on the five-member council.
• Moving into the House: Angela Gonzales-Torres unseated incumbent Jimmy Gomez in the race for House District 34, which includes downtown L.A., Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock and Koreatown. The Highland Park local will be a newcomer to Capitol Hill.
• Other DSA races: In West Hollywood, Stephen Post came in third out of 14 candidates running for city council, securing his seat in the chamber. In the race for Inglewood Unified School District Board of Education, Trustee Area 3, Yaritza González has earned more than double her challenger's votes. And for the Centinela Valley Union High School District Board, Estefany Castañeda was the only candidate on the ballot, earning an appointment to Trustee Area 5.
• What experts tell us: Tom Hogen-Esch, a professor of political science at California State University, Northridge, said that with more people entering the bloodstream of local politics in L.A., the region is going to get a more representative electorate that includes a lot of younger voters and renters, for example, which he expects to have had a big impact on election night. “I think we've entered a new era in L.A. politics where owners of single-family properties — these high propensity voters — are no longer calling the shots anymore.” However, he said it’s way too soon to expect any kind of radical populist and socialist-leaning policies in the city. “I wouldn't expect a revolution from [Raman’s] time as mayor.”

School repair bonds are passing in SoCal — but not statewide

• What’s happening: The election results so far show that dozens of school bonds on state ballots are failing, as reported by our newsroom partner CalMatters. Just over 85 California school districts put bonds on the ballot, totaling $12.4 billion, with 50 on track to pass as of earlier this week. But voters in L.A. and O.C. seem more receptive to the idea, passing bonds across the board for a dozen school districts.
  
  • L.A.: Ten school districts are asking for about $1.2 billion. That includes Bellflower, Glendora, Hawthorne and Temple City. All of the proposals are passing by decently wide margins, except for Glendora, which is sitting a hair above the threshold at 56.4%.
  • O.C.: A pair of school districts, Laguna Beach and Westminster, are asking for $211 million for their campuses. Both are passing with more than 68% of the vote.
• What are bonds, anyway? School districts will often ask voters to approve bonds to pay for repairs, renovations and construction. A bond is like a loan the school districts take out, with property owners in each area paying it back through a bump in property taxes. You can learn more in our newsroom’s thorough guide here.
• What’s next: Bonds need 55% of votes to pass. LAist surveyed local districts with bonds ahead of the election, and their priorities include fixing deteriorating roofs, plumbing, updating classrooms and school security systems, among others.

Voters rule on the judiciary

• L.A. County judges: All but one of our local races for the L.A. County Superior Court are settled — Office No. 131 between Donna Tryfman and David Ross, who are separated by around 5,000 votes, with Tryfman in the lead. This race has narrowed drastically since Election Day, which makes sense because the candidates were very similar on paper as career public defenders. The other seats were won by deputy district attorney Maria Ghobadi in seat 64, deputy public defender Justin Allen Clayton in seat 65 and deputy public defender Anthony "A.J." Bayne in seat 87.
• Statewide justices: California voters also had two retention elections for the state Supreme Court and a long lineup of appellate justices to decide. (Reminder: These courts are about settling novel issues in law and checking cases for mistakes, respectively. We vote on justices through “yes/no” retention elections every four years.) All justices facing voters are on track to keep their jobs by decent margins. That’s not a shocker — sitting justices regularly win retention with around two-thirds of the vote, according to our analysis, and that’s where the vast majority are headed. However, for the state’s highest court, more than 2 million voters skipped these races so far compared to the way more known governor’s race.
• What’s next: For the Superior Court, new judges will start in January. They must attend a judge orientation within six months and judicial college within two years. New judges don’t get to decide what courtroom they’re assigned to — they go where the needs are. Retired L.A. County judge Stuart Rice previously explained at an LAist event, “You’re most likely going to be assigned to either a traffic court [or] a low-level criminal court, such as misdemeanors, no felonies. You may be doing eviction cases.”
• How you can follow their work: Once an elected judge starts the job, it’s a bit harder to keep track of their performance unless it’s egregious or otherwise newsworthy. That being said, you can attend their public courtroom proceedings and read up on them through outlets like the Metropolitan News-Enterprise or Daily Journal.
  
  • Speaking of following judges … The primary had a highly unusual judicial race with an L.A. County judge, Robert Draper, facing misconduct proceedings. He ended up losing reelection then to a deputy district attorney. Well, the state’s judicial watchdog has finally handed down a decision: Draper has been removed from the bench for “severe misconduct.”

Is it over yet?

These results are based on about 12.9 million votes that have been counted so far statewide — more than 3.1 million in L.A. County and more than 1.1 million in Orange County.

L.A. County estimates just 37,500 ballots left to count, and Orange County estimates 18,080. Statewide, there are about 900,000 ballots left to count.

We mentioned previously that this year's count was definitely faster in L.A. County, but it's looking like the same is true statewide, too. An analysis from the California Voter Foundation found that counties across the state counted 89% of ballots seven days after Election Day, compared to 84% in the same time frame in the 2024 election and 72% in 2022.

The next local ballot count drop will start around 4 p.m. this afternoon. We’ll be back in your inbox next week to round up the last of the race calls and then say goodbye when it’s over.

— Cato and Makenna

📰 Catch up quick

You can get caught up on our past issues here:

• Nov. 12: A shakeup in Santa Ana
• Nov. 10: The billionaire tax fails
• Nov. 9: An L.A. City Council shakeup, plus lots of failed props
• Nov. 7: A progressive becomes CA’s insurance head
• Nov. 6: The L.A. city attorney race comes to a close
• Nov. 5: Nithya Raman wins the L.A. mayor’s race
• Nov. 5: All 8 L.A. city measures could pass
• Nov. 4: We’ve got a new governor, plus voter ID fails

Otherwise, you can keep up with the results here:

• L.A. County
• Orange County