Spencer Pratt went to bed election night in second place – and woke up a week later in third.
Now the Supreme Court is preparing to rule on exactly what just happened to him.
The justices are about to deliver a verdict on California's ballot counting system – and Democrats are not going to like the answer.
California Mail-In Ballot Counting After Election Day Has a Long History of Flipping Races
California does not have election night.
It has election season.
In the 2022 midterms, more than half the state's votes were counted after Election Day – ballots trickling in for weeks while races flipped, leads evaporated, and candidates who thought they'd won went home losers.
The 2024 general election was worse – nearly one-third of California ballots remained uncounted on election night, with the state issuing daily updates through December 3, a full month after voters went to the polls.
Last Tuesday was more of the same.
Pratt held a solid grip on second place in the LA mayor's race on June 2, leading by nearly 8 points.
By Sunday – a week later – DSA-backed Nithya Raman had overtaken him, powered by late-arriving mail ballots that in one single day delivered her 23,514 votes to Pratt's 10,336.
Trump lit up Truth Social Monday: "Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had. 3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections!"
Hans von Spakovsky – senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom and one of the country's top election law experts – identified four structural causes behind California's endless count: mass mail voting, a seven-day post-Election Day ballot receipt window, a 22-day cure period for signature issues, and high volumes of provisional ballots requiring individual investigation.
None of it is accidental, von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital – the delays stem from the structure of California's electoral system itself.
Watson v RNC Supreme Court Ruling Could End California's Mail Ballot Grace Period Before November
The Supreme Court heard arguments in Watson v. Republican National Committee on March 23.
The case started in Mississippi, where state law allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be received and counted up to five business days after – but the ruling could strike down late-ballot laws in 14 states and Washington, D.C., including California's seven-day window.
RNC Chairman Joe Gruters did not mince words.
"Nearly a week after the primary, it is completely unacceptable ballots are still being counted," Gruters told the New York Post. "That's why the RNC is aggressively fighting in the Supreme Court to stop ballots received after Election Day from being counted."
The Trump DOJ filed an amicus brief backing the RNC's position.
During arguments, the court's conservative justices – Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch – signaled they were ready to rule that federal law means what it says: Election Day is one day, and ballots must be received by that day to count.
The decision lands before the court's summer recess – this month.
California Has Been Running This System Since 2015
California didn't build this by accident.
In 2015, the state enacted its first postmark deadline law, letting ballots arrive after Election Day as long as they were mailed on time.
By 2022, 90% of California ballots were mail ballots – and the counting dragged on for weeks.
The pattern never changes: Republican and independent candidates build election-night leads, then Democrats wait while mail ballots arrive and the gap closes.
It happened to Rick Caruso in the 2022 LA mayor's race – he was ahead on election night, then Karen Bass buried him once the mail ballots came in.
Democrat strategist Michael Trujillo told critics to "go back to where you came from" when they raised questions about the ongoing count.
Pratt posted a meme of Russell Crowe from A Beautiful Mind, frantically connecting dots on a board, captioned: "Me trying to figure out how votes get counted in LA."
California's secretary of state insists the system is working exactly as intended.
Gavin Newsom built this machine and has defended it for a decade.
Raman isn't just a city council member – she voted against clearing homeless encampments and was censured by her own far-left allies for not being extreme enough on Gaza.
She is now poised to run against Karen Bass in November, powered entirely by ballots that arrived after election night.
That's not democracy – that's a rigged conveyor belt, and Newsom designed every inch of it.
When the Supreme Court rules this month that ballots must be received by Election Day – and the conservative majority signaled loudly that's exactly where they're headed – California's late-ballot machine shuts down permanently.
No more election week.
No more watching leads disappear one mail batch at a time.
One day. One count. Done.
Sources:
- Josh Christenson, "Under-the-radar Supreme Court case could end California's delayed election counts for good," New York Post, June 8, 2026.
- "Spencer Pratt's LA mayoral runoff bid in jeopardy as ballot count narrows," Fox News, June 7, 2026.
- "Nithya Raman Overtakes Spencer Pratt in L.A. Mayor's Race," Variety, June 8, 2026.
- Ashley J. DiMella, "California election limbo fueled by 4 pressure points dragging out vote count, expert says," Fox News Digital, June 5, 2026.
- "Why California takes weeks to count votes compared to Florida, other states," CBS San Francisco, November 12, 2024.
- "Watson v. Republican National Committee," Ballotpedia, March 23, 2026.
