Another lead change? How to keep track of the vote counting in the 2026 primary

Californians have been here before: The polls close and one candidate appears to be out of the running — only to see their fortunes shift as more mail-in ballots are counted.

It's happening in the races for L.A. mayor and California governor as the votes continue to be counted in the primary election.

More and more Californians are voting by mail, and people who turn their ballots in closer to the deadline tend to skew more progressive. There are an estimated 140,000 outstanding vote-by-mail ballots in L.A. County that still need to be counted, and about 92,000 in Orange County.

A not-unusual flip

In the mayor matchup, Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star, had a significant runner-up lead over L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman when polls closed June 2. But Raman had been steadily picking up votes as results rolled in, taking over the second spot from Pratt as of Sunday. By Monday, the Associated Press called the race for Raman. She will face incumbent Karen Bass in the November general election.

The race for L.A. mayor started to noticeably shift last week. More than 140,000 ballots were processed Friday, and once they were added to the total, Raman had inched closer to TV personality Spencer Pratt in the race for second place. Most if not all of the ballots were vote by mail, according to estimates based on results from the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder / County Clerk.

Nearly 157,000 more ballots were processed by Saturday, about half of which were vote by mail.

Raman was nearly 22,000 votes ahead of Pratt as of Monday.

It’s been a similar story in the governor’s race. Republican Steve Hilton was in the top spot with a lead of a few percentage points over Democratic challenger Xavier Becerra last Tuesday. Becerra has now eclipsed Hilton by about 202,000 votes and is headed to the November runoff. It was unclear who would be joining Becerra in the general election as of Monday.

Vote surges that flips races and advance lower-ranked candidates to the general election aren’t new (which is why you may hear some refer to Election Day as election week or election season).

In 2024, for example, L.A. City Council District 14 incumbent Kevin de León wrapped up election night ahead of his challengers, but the lead eroded in the days following.

Ysabel Jurado, a tenants rights attorney that was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, picked up enough votes to overtake de León and eventually win the general election.

Voting by mail is more popular with Democrats than Republicans, and California accepts those ballots up to a week after the election (as long as it was postmarked on or before last Tuesday).

Changes in the results have started to slow down and should continue to drop off after Tuesday's deadline.

When to expect new numbers

Updated vote totals are being released as ballots continue to be verified and counted.

The drops continue this week and are expected around 4 p.m. today through Friday, according to the registrar-recorder.

The updates will become more infrequent starting next week as the number of outstanding ballots dwindle. Drops are expected around 4 p.m. June 16 and 18, as well as June 24 and 26.

How to tell if your ballot has been counted

You can track when your vote has been received and counted through the Where’s My Ballot? tool.

You can sign up to get notifications through that tool, but some voters have been reporting delays, which the Registrar-Recorder’s Office said it’s aware of.

County officials saw a “large volume” of vote-by-mail ballots around Election Day, which could lead to slight delays, a spokesperson told LAist in an email. Those ballots need to be processed and scanned before notifications can be sent.

L.A. County also has its own vote-by-mail tracking tool that may update quicker. You can check the status of your ballot here.

Orange County has a similar tool for tracking your ballot, which you can find here.

How to stay up-to-date

You can sign up to get the latest L.A. County ballot count updates sent straight to your email inbox here. You can sign up for Orange County updates here, and from the California Secretary of State here.

You can also find them on our L.A. results and O.C. results pages.

You can also sign up for Make it Make Sense here, LAist’s newsletter about the primary election results.