LOS ANGELES (CNS) - As ballots continue to be tallied from last week's election, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey fell below the 50% mark in her reelection bid today, moving her closer to an increasingly likely November runoff against former San Francisco D.A. George Gascon.
Lacey would need to finish with more than 50% of the vote from the March 3 election to avoid a runoff. But while she was above that level when unofficial results were announced after the election, her margin has been steadily decreasing as the county tallies vote-by-mail, provisional and same- day-registration ballots.
The first tally from last week's showed Lacey with 51.6% of the vote. But that margin dropped to 50.7% when the first counting update was released, then it fell to 50.1%, and then to 50% on Friday.
The latest vote totals released Tuesday by the county Registrar- Recorder/County Clerk's Office showed Lacey with 49.9% of the vote.
There are about 493,450 ballots left to count, according to the county.
The next vote-counting update is scheduled to be released Friday afternoon.