Thursday, November 20, 2008
Page 3
Los Angeles Superior Court Race Tightens as Ballot Count Continues
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Deputy District Attorney Thomas Rubinson’s lead in a close judicial race became somewhat narrower as election officials continue to count vote-by-mail and provisional ballots from the Nov. 4 election.
Figures released late Tuesday show Rubinson ahead of Superior Court Referee Cynthia Loo by a vote of 1,169,914 to 1,132,974, or 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent.
Rubinson and Loo were the runoff candidates for the Los Angeles Superior Court judgeship from which Judge Wendell Mortimer Jr. retired in April.
When election workers went home in the early hours of Nov. 5, Rubinson led by 40,322 votes; the lead is now 36,940. A registrar’s spokesperson said yesterday there are only 19,000 vote-by-mail ballots left to count, but that there are still over 160,000 provisional ballots, of which history suggests about 90 percent will count.
There is no conclusive way of determining how many of those ballots contain votes in the Rubinson-Loo race, since many voters skip judicial and other down-ballot races. But Loo would need to gain an unusually large percentage of the remaining ballots to change the outcome.
The Rubinson-Loo race was by far the closest of five judicial contests, with deputy district attorneys leading in all of them. Margins in the other four races ranged from 130,000 to more than 500,000.
Officials are scheduled to update the returns again tomorrow and to announce final results by Wednesday of next week.
Copyright 2008, Metropolitan News Company