LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey is headed for a November runoff against former San Francisco D.A. George Gascon, according to a primary election voting-count update released today.
Lacey has 48.71% of the vote, to 28.20% for Gascon. Former public defender Rachel Rossi was third with 23.09%.
The incumbent needed 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 March 3 election, but her margin has been steadily decreasing as the county tallies vote-by-mail, provisional and same-day-registration ballots.
Friday's update, released by the county Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Office, shows that 2,101,601 votes have been counted, which is 38.128% of eligible Los Angeles County voters.
Lacey now has 862,303 votes to Gascon's 499,182. An estimated number of outstanding ballots left to be counted is 20,100.
``Thank you, LA. I hope to earn your vote this November,'' Gascon tweeted Friday.
Rossi released a statement saying she was ``humbled that over 400,000 Los Angeles County voters made me their choice'' for DA.
``While we didn't qualify for the runoff, we are still victorious today,'' she said.
Rossi said her campaign ``was driven by modern and progressive policies with a focus on bringing everyone to the table and hearing all voices. The support that we received reflects L.A.'s readiness to see bold, transformative and unifying reform in the District Attorney's Office.''
The next vote-counting update is scheduled to be released Tuesday.