In the Los Angeles mayoral race, a batch of thousands of ballots was counted on election night with not a single solitary vote recorded for Spencer Pratt — the independent, populist, celebrity-turned-candidate who had the establishment sweating bullets. The Associated Press and the LA Times want you to know it was just a harmless little "glitch." Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along.
Zero. Not twelve. Not three. Zero. Out of thousands. And we're supposed to nod along and call that a computer hiccup.
Here's what happened, during an electronic update from the Los Angeles County website, votes were pulled in for only one group of candidates — including incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and far-left City Councilmember Nithya Raman — while Spencer Pratt received exactly zero. The AP's explanation? "There was a lag in an automated update such that some candidates' votes were added in one update and the other candidates followed about a minute later."
One minute later. How convenient.
Let's look at the numbers as of June 7, 2026, with 78% of ballots counted. Karen Bass sits at 235,180 votes — that's 34.8%. Spencer Pratt has 184,596 votes at 27.3%. And Nithya Raman is breathing down his neck at 177,102 votes — 26.2%. Pratt's lead over Raman? Just 7,494 votes. And in the latest ballot batch, Raman gained 23,514 votes while Pratt gained only 10,336.
Under California's top-two primary system, only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election if nobody clears 50%. Bass is locked in. The real fight is between Pratt and Raman for that second slot. And wouldn't you know it — every late-arriving ballot dump seems to break overwhelmingly for the establishment Democrat.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy put it plainly on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures: "The question to the rest of the world is what happened to California elections? Well, I'll tell you, it's Gavin Newsom." Rep. Ted Lieu helpfully reminded everyone that LA has roughly 1,224,737 registered Democrats versus just 326,292 Republicans — as if that explains away a batch of ballots where one candidate got literally nothing.
The election was held June 2, 2026. Ballots can still trickle in until June 9. Certification isn't until July 10. That's over a month of counting. In California. Where Elon Musk has pointed out that "the reason ID is banned in California (and New York) elections is to enable large-scale fraud."
We've seen this movie before. The anti-establishment candidate surges, the machine panics, and then — whoopsie — a "glitch" just happens to erase his votes while padding the approved candidates. Every single time. The machine protects the machine.