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About this election
What to keep in mind about these numbers
- For LAist's charts showing vote counts, we get numbers directly from the L.A. County and Orange County registrars of voters for local races. Totals are updated on our site as soon as possible after the registrars provide new tallies. For statewide races, counts come from the California Secretary of State's Office.
- Has your ballot been tallied yet? You can track the status of your ballot here.
- Keep in mind that, in tight races particularly, the winner may not be determined for days or weeks after election day. That's because early voting and mail-in ballots have fundamentally reshaped how votes are counted and when election results are known. The upshot: Ballots can be postmarked up to and including Election Day. They're counted as long as the ballot arrives within seven days of the election and that window contributes to the lag time before results are announced.
- In L.A. County, for example, daily updates on the counting are expected to take place at least once a day — usually around 5 p.m. — through Nov. 13. (There will be multiple updates on Nov. 5 and 6.) Then, the once-a-day counts will resume again on Nov. 17, 19, 25 and 27. The office is scheduled to certify election results by Friday, Nov. 27. In Orange County, there will be multiple updates after the polls close, and then daily updates weekdays at 5 p.m. until results are scheduled to be certified on or before Dec. 3.
- The California Secretary of State is scheduled to certify the election results on Dec. 11.
- Our priority during the vote count will be sharing outcomes and election calls only when they have been thoroughly checked and vetted by journalists. To that end, we will rely on official results and report when candidates concede. Otherwise, we rely on NPR and the Associated Press for race calls. We will not report the calls or projections of other news outlets. You can find more about NPR's and the AP's process for counting votes and calling races here and here.
Wondering how we got here? Here's the backstory to this race:
What’s at stake in this race
The Board of Equalization was created to standardize property tax assessments across the state. Today, it has a five-person board consisting of four elected members representing geographic districts and the state controller. It advises county assessors, sets the taxable value of property owned by utilities and railroads and hears some taxpayer appeals. Lawmakers stripped the agency of broader authority in 2017.
District 3, which covers all of L.A. County, has two Democrats on the ballot — with a wide gap in financial support. Mike Gipson is a longtime state legislator. He is termed out of his state Assembly seat representing the 65th district, which covers Carson, North Long Beach and Compton, among other nearby communities. Gipson faces Sam P. Sukaton, whose campaign website lists his background as a "union organizer, policy leader, and former Jeopardy! contestant." Sukaton also served as a regional campaign director for Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential run in the Inland Empire and Orange County.
District 3
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State of California
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The candidates
Mike Gipson
Party: Democratic
State Assemblymember
Key endorsements
More voter resources
Samuel P. Sukaton
Party: Democratic
Labor union organizer
Key endorsements
More voter resources
- No official candidate statement
- Campaign website
- Full endorsement list
Go deeper
Follow the money
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