Muratsuchi Leads In Assembly Primary, Votes Partially Counted

REDONDO BEACH, CA — Election day has come and gone in Palos Verdes and unofficial results are partially in for the State Assembly, President and Senator races.

As of 11 p.m. on Tuesday, the results recorded were made up of about 87 percent mail-in ballots and 12 percent vote center ballots. Only 698,836, or just over 12 percent, of Los Angeles County's voters were tallied out of the over 5 million registered voters.

Locally, voters in Assembly District 66, which includes Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach Manhattan Beach, El Segundo, Gardena, Torrance and the Palos Verdes Peninsula cities voted for two candidates.

Current Democratic Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi and Republican small business owner George Barks will both advance to the general election, as they are the only two candidates. As of 11 p.m., Muratsuchi was leading the vote with just over 61 percent of the vote, 0r 31,001 votes. Barks was following him with about 38 percent of the vote, or 19,649 votes.

Scroll to the bottom of this story for real-time Los Angeles County election results.

Can't see the results? Click here for all March 5, 2024 Primary Los Angeles County election updates.

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SEE RELATED: Real-Time Results: Los Angeles District Attorney Primary Election 2024

Mail-in voters in California now have a way to track their ballots to make sure their votes are counted. The California Secretary of State is now offering "Where’s My Ballot?" for voters to track and receive notifications on the status of their vote-by-mail ballot.

With Where’s My Ballot? Voters who sign up will receive notices via email, text, or voice
message from the county elections official regarding the status of the voter's vote-by-mail ballot including:

• When the ballot has been delivered
• The date that the voter's ballot is expected to be delivered to the voter
• If the voter's ballot is returned as undeliverable to the county elections official by the USPS
• When the voter's completed ballot has been received by the county
• Whether the voter's completed ballot has been accepted or a reason why the ballot could not be accepted and instructions of steps the voter can take in order to have the ballot accepted
• The deadline for the voter to return his or her ballot if the county has not received a voter's completed ballot by specified dates as determined by the county elections officials

Presidential Primary

The primary will decide which candidate gets California's 169 delegates — the largest haul of any state — to the Republican and Democratic national conventions, to be held in July and August, respectively.

All three top contenders have been stumping in California. President Joe Biden and Republican contender Nikki Haley visited Southern California earlier this month. Biden is slated to return Feb. 20 for a series of campaign events in the Los Angeles area. GOP frontrunner Donald Trump campaigned in the Golden State days after skipping the Republican debate in September.

There were notable changes to California's primary this year. It moved up from June to Super Tuesday in March with 13 other states.

In California, the political parties determine whether they will have open or closed presidential parties, meaning only the party's registered voters can pick the winning candidates.

The Green Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, and the Republican Party are all holding closed primaries in California.

Furthermore, the state's GOP changed the rules to winner-takes-all so that any candidate who gets a majority wins all of the delegates. Previously, the delegates were divided up based on the number of congressional districts each Republican won.

The change, pushed by the Donald Trump campaign, raises the stakes in California's primary and favors the frontrunner in the Republican primary, which also happens to be Trump.

The American Independent Party, the Democratic Party, and the Libertarian Party hold a modified-closed primary, which means they allow No Party Preference voters to vote in their primaries.

Statewide Primary Elections

All 52 of California's congressional districts had primary races on March 5 along with one U.S. Senate race. With frontrunners Trump and Biden expected to sail to victory in California's presidential primary, the real suspense centers on the Golden State's senate race.

For the senate race, California had an open primary, which means only the top two vote-getters in the primary election, regardless of party affiliation, move on to the general election.

All election season, polls have shown Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) in the lead with former Los Angeles Dodger Steve Garvey (R), Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine ), and Rep. Barbara Lee (Oakland) vying for second place to make it into the general election. However, last week Garvey pulled into first place after consolidating conservative support and with a little help from an ad campaign by Schiff aimed at raising Garvey's profile over Porter, who is seen as the bigger threat in the general election.

According to new polls from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, Garvey pulled into first place with the support of 27 percent of likely voters compared to Schiff's 25 percent and Porter's 19 percent. Just weeks earlier a California Elections and Policy Poll released in February had Porter and Garvey deadlocked in the race for second place.

Schiff went into February far in the lead with 25 percent of likely voters while Porter and Garvey, each garnered support from 15 percent of likely voters. Lee was polling in fourth place at 7 percent of the vote, according to the poll. It's been decades since a Republican won statewide office in California, and that may be why the Schiff campaign is expending considerable capital to raise Garvey's profile among Republican voters through a series of expensive Fox News ads, touting him as too conservative for California.

Garvey, with just over $300,000 in his war chest, can't afford such ads. Porter blasted the tactic as a “brazenly cynical” bid for Schiff to handpick his opponent in the general election, counting on deep blue California to reject any statewide Republican candidate in the general election.

According to Politico, Porter and Schiff booked a staggering $25 million in airtime. Schiff has nabbed the bulk of the Democratic establishment endorsements such as Nancy Pelosi, United Farm Workers and the Los Angeles Times editorial board. Porter, a darling of progressives, garnered endorsements from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, CA Attorney General Rob Bonta, and consumer advocacy groups.

Patch Staffer Michael Wittner contributed to this report.