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The results come amid intense scrutiny of California\u2019s vote-counting process.<\/p>\n
The state mails a ballot registered to every voter that they can return via mail or at a vote center. The system aims to make voting more convenient and increase participation, but it also means the vote-counting process is more time-consuming. Unlike votes cast in person, mail ballots require a signature check, an extra layer of security that adds time to the vote-counting process. Ballots returned via mail also continue arriving at county registrars’ offices for days after the election, and can be counted as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.<\/p>\n
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That has provided fodder for conservatives angry with former reality TV star Spencer Pratt\u2019s poor showing in the Los Angeles mayor\u2019s race. Pratt, a Republican, had always faced an uphill battle to victory in deep-blue Los Angeles, but conservatives have pointed to his higher vote share on Election Day, when roughly half of ballots had been counted, as evidence of something fishy. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called California\u2019s elections \u201crigged,\u201d without evidence, citing Pratt\u2019s loss. At the same time, Trump has cheered Hilton\u2019s success in the vote tallies.<\/p>\n
Under California\u2019s open \u201ctop-two\u201d primary system, Hilton and Becerra ran in the same crowded field of more than 60 candidates. Hilton and Becerra\u2019s first- and second-place finishes mean both Republicans and Democrats will be able to vote for a candidate from their own party.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom is barred from running again because of term limits. He had previously declined to endorse in the crowded race to replace him, but once the race was called Tuesday he released a statement calling on Californians to support\u00a0Becerra.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecerra has the experience and grit California needs,\u201d Newsom wrote. \u201cHe will stand up to Donald Trump, defend our families, and keep our state moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilton, who was buoyed to victory in the primary by a Trump endorsement, immediately tried to distance himself Tuesday afternoon from the hyper-partisan politics that have made the Republican president so unpopular in California.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis campaign is not about Democrat v Republican,\u201d he wrote on social media. \u201cIt\u2019s about common sense, change, practical solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becerra, for his part, also pivoted to winning over people who did not vote for him in the crowded primary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis November, voters will choose between a governor who will fight for that future and one who would hand Sacramento to Donald Trump,\u201d\u00a0Becerra wrote in a statement Tuesday. \u201cWhoever you voted for on June 2nd, whatever party you belong to\u00a0\u2014 I want to earn your support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Political observers had been monitoring the possibility the third-place candidate, Democrat Tom Steyer, might overtake Hilton and finish second, creating a Democrat-on-Democrat matchup for the general election.In the last few days, Steyer did narrow the gap between himself and the frontrunners, thanks to a surge of last-minute ballots cast by Democrats and a late upswing in enthusiasm from liberal voters for the progressive billionaire activist. But ultimately he did not win enough votes to advance.<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday afternoon, Becerra was in the lead with 27.9% of the vote. Hilton trailed close behind with 24.9% of the vote. And Steyer remained in third place with 22.6% of the vote.<\/p>\n
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The Associated Press called the race Tuesday, determining that Hilton and Becerra\u2019s leads were too substantial for Steyer or any other candidates to overtake them as the remaining votes are tallied.<\/p>\n
Steyer conceded the race soon after, acknowledging that the inherent contradiction in his message\u00a0\u2014 that he was a billionaire running to take on other billionaires and mega-corporations\u00a0\u2014 likely hamstrung his own campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are fed up with a system rigged to benefit billionaires and leave them behind,\u201d he wrote in a message to supporters. \u201cIt\u2019s why so many people voted for our platform. And it\u2019s not lost on me that it\u2019s also why so many people just couldn\u2019t stomach voting for a billionaire. It\u2019s hard to blame them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xavier\u00a0Becerra, left, and Steve Hilton take part in a gubernatorial debate at The\u00a0Bayview Opera House in San Francisco…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,204,13,101,103,102,104,106,105,2013],"class_list":["post-354287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-california","tag-election","tag-politics","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-us-and-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}