Los Angeles mayor's race: Caruso, Bass remain neck-and-neck as new results to be released Friday

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The race between U.S. Rep. Karen Bass and developer Rick Caruso for who will be the next mayor of Los Angeles remains too close to call, and according to officials, new results won't be released until Friday.

After the candidates traded leads in early returns Tuesday night, Caruso led Bass by 12,282 votes as of 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, which is the latest data available from the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

Caruso had 51.25% of the vote compared to 48.75% for Bass.

In a press release issued Wednesday, the L.A. County registrar's office said a total of 1,318,093 ballots have processed and counted so far.

They said the first post-Election Day ballot count update is scheduled for Friday. The full schedule of ballot counting updates is available here.

Tuesday night, in speeches at their respective election night parties, both Caruso and Bass acknowledged the race may be too close to call for a while.

The early batch of results included only early vote-by-mail ballots cast before Election Day, and the second batch was from vote center ballots cast before Election Day. The latest poll before Election Day indicated that the race was tightening after Bass had sizable lead earlier in the campaign.

Bass, a six-term member of Congress, is seeking to become the first woman and only the second Black person to lead L.A. Caruso, a billionaire, is looking to win a campaign that's on track to spend over $100 million -- much of it from Caruso's own fortune -- to propel him into contention.

See more 2022 election results

LA Mayor Race: Live Results

City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.