LA election result ‘not a huge surprise’ but process was ‘terrible’: Byron York
Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said he wasn’t surprised by Los Angeles mayoral primary results, but he strongly criticized California’s ballot-counting and election process. Appearing on Fox & Friends, York argued Democrats’ strong numerical advantage in Los Angeles made candidate Spencer Pratt’s chances limited, including his failure to finish second to Nithya Raman.
While calling teh outcome unsurprising, york described the primary’s election administration as “terrible” and questioned the reliability of voting in California. He pointed to the state’s ballot-handling rules-allowing others to collect and return mail-in ballots on a voter’s behalf-as enabling “ballot harvesting,” where campaigns,parties,and unions may temporarily control ballots. He also criticized California’s slow tallies, saying other states like Colorado and Florida do better, and argued the system is structured in a way that fosters suspicion and undermines confidence in election results.
Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York signaled he was unsurprised by the Los Angeles mayoral race outcome, but blasted the race’s ballot-counting process.
“The idea that Pratt could either win or even place second place in a primary was kind of unrealistic,” York said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends Tuesday.
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Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt lost the chance to head to November’s runoff election against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. Pratt lost the second-place spot to City Councilwoman Nithya Raman.
“I’m not terribly surprised,” York said. “In the city of Los Angeles, Democrats outnumber Republicans by 4-to-1.”
The primary election was held on June 2. York said while the result of the race was not a “huge surprise,” the process was “terrible” and called into question the reliability of the voting system.
“There’s so many things wrong with California’s process,” York said.
He highlighted the ballot collection process, which, under California law, allows voters to authorize another person to turn in their mail-in ballot on their behalf, including volunteers and campaign workers.
The process, which York called “ballot harvesting,” allows “politically interested groups like political parties and campaigns and unions to collect ballots from voters and then deliver them to the authorities. So for some period of time, all those ballots are in the hands of the union or the campaign, for goodness’ sake.”
York criticized California for slow vote tallying and said other states like Colorado and Florida have systems in place to generate faster results.
“It’s just a system that seems designed to create suspicions and undermine confidence in the final result,” York said.
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