CITYWIDE ¬ó Assemblywoman Betsy Butler (D-53rd) and Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom still hold the lead in the race for the 50th Assembly District as provisional ballots continued to trickle in Friday.
According to officials at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, Butler led Bloom, a Democrat, by 275 votes as of the last count.
The other two candidates, Democrat Torie Osborn and Republican Bradley Torgan, trailed the front-runner by 1.5 percentage points and 1.7 percentage points, respectively.
Despite the close vote totals since the June 5 primary, Butler and Bloom have maintained their percentage leads with little variation as thousands of provisional and vote-by-mail ballots were counted.
At this point, the office is only counting provisional ballots, and does not expect the counts to change much, officials said.
This election marked two firsts for California politics. It was the first time that each voter received the same ballot and had the opportunity to vote for any candidate, no matter their political party.
It was also the first time that candidates ran in newly-drawn districts created by an independent commission rather than by politicians themselves.
If Butler and Bloom maintain their leads the Democrats will face off against one another in November.
ashley@www.smdp.com