Photo: InCommunicado / E+ / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado Thursday continued to lead City Councilman Kevin de León, upping her margin to 391 votes in the primary race for the 14th District council seat.
Jurado has 8,579 votes, 24.53%, to 8,188, 23.41% for de León in the March 5 primary, according to figures released Thursday by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
Jurado entered Thursday's resumption of the ballot count with a 318- vote lead.
Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, remained in third with 7,442 votes, 21.28%.
The county Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk announced on Thursday afternoon that there are less than 8,200 ballots to process, countywide, from last Tuesday's election. It's unclear how many of them are from the 14th District.
The registrar is expected to provide more updates until the election results are certified on March 29.
Because no candidate in the field of eight will receive a majority, the top two candidates will meet in a runoff in November, likely Jurado and de León.
With more than 76% of the primary vote going to candidates other than de León, Jurado is the heavy favorite in the runoff.
Jurado took the lead for the first time Tuesday after trailing by 26 votes following the completion of Monday's count.
Jurado was in third with 18.92% of the vote, according to figures released March 6. De León led with 27.15% and Santiago was second with 20.27%.
De León drew the ire of the public and fellow elected officials, including President Joe Biden, for his participation in a secretly recorded conversation in 2021 over redistricting that included a series of racist remarks.
The 14th District encompasses Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Downtown Los Angeles, El Sereno and Northeast Los Angeles.