LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey slipped further below the 50% mark in her reelection bid after the latest tally of votes from the March 3 primary election released today, making a November runoff against former San Francisco D.A. George Gascon increasingly likely.
The latest update showed Lacey with 48.79% of the vote, to 28.18% for Gascon. Former public defender Rachel Rossi was third with 23.03%.
Lacey needs to finish with more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff. She was above that level when unofficial results were announced after the election, but her margin has been steadily decreasing as the county tallies vote-by-mail, provisional and same-day-registration ballots.
Lacey now has 851,796 votes to Gascon's 491,931.
According to Tuesday's update, released by the county Registrar- Recorder/County Clerk's Office, 2,071,929 votes have been counted, which is 37.58% of eligible Los Angeles County voters.
An estimated number of outstanding ballots left to be counted is 64,000.
The next vote-counting update is scheduled to be released Friday.