California primary election results: Los Angeles mayor, California governor's races remain undecided

Democrat Xavier Becerra will advance to the general election in the California gubernatorial race, the Associated Press projects.

Democrat Xavier Becerra has advanced to the general election for California governor after pitching himself as an experienced choice to lead the nation's most populous state, AP News projects.

In a new drop of election results on Friday evening, Becerra took the lead over Republican Steve Hilton. In the latest totals, Becerra has 26.7% of the vote, and Hilton has 26.4% of the vote. Tom Steyer is in third with 21% of the vote.

In the latest update on Friday evening, 65% of the expected votes had been counted.

AP has not yet projected which candidate Becerra will face.

Becerra leaned on his more than 35 years in public office - including as state attorney general and U.S. health secretary - to argue that he was the most qualified candidate in a crowded field.

"I am ready to lead the fight to uphold California's promise to make sure we have the governance worthy of our gifts," he said on election night.

Once an afterthought in the race, he surged in the final months and vowed he would maintain the state's mantle as a chief antagonist to President Donald Trump.

AP News contributed to this report.

The top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles said Friday there are "multiple election fraud investigations underway" but did not give any information or specifics.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in an X post that his office is working with Harmeet Dhillon, the Department of Justice's assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, "to conduct a comprehensive audit of California's voter rolls."

"We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent," he said adding that the state allegedly "stonewalled every effort to verify that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered to vote."

The top federal prosecutor in L.A. said Friday there are "multiple election fraud investigations underway" but did not provide any specifics.

The Department of Justice has long said that California has issues with its voter rolls, and that investigations are underway. It isn't clear if there is any evidence to support this, and the DOJ has not provided evidence of fraud.

Friday morning, assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Renner was at L.A. County's vote counting facility in the City of industry. A representative from Attorney General Rob Bonta's office was also there.

Meanwhile, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to mobilize state resources.

"We need sensible elections in California. Mail-in ballots must arrive by Election Day if they're going to be counted. Mail-in ballots can only be offered by request as it used to be. You shouldn't be sending out mail-in ballots to everyone," Hilton said.

Hilton's plan also would create regional election surge teams that could quickly be deployed to counties with the largest backlogs.

ABC News contributed to this report.

As elections workers continue to verify and count mail-in ballots still coming in, they're getting criticized over California's counting process.

As elections workers continue to verify and count mail-in ballots still coming in, they're getting pummeled with criticism over California's counting process. But why does the counting process take so long?

"The main culprit here is that California is an all-mail state, meaning that it mails a ballot to every single registered voter," said Stephen Richer, former Registrar of Voters for Maricopa County in Arizona.

The most populous state in the country is home to 23 million registered voters, which requires ample time for all ballots to be accurately counted. But in addition to the sheer volume of votes, the state also relies on a significant number of mail-in ballots, with some not arriving until a week after voting ends.

Richer says that in California, about 80% of voters vote using the ballot they get in the mail -- compare that to Texas for example, where only about 15% of voters use mail-in ballots, and he says you can understand why it takes so long in California.

"I think somebody defending California's system would say, look, we're a big spread-out state with a culture of mail voting. We like it because you don't have to wait in line. We like because it's accessible, we like it because we think it gives our voters every opportunity to participate in the system and that's what's most important to us," said Richer.

According to the California secretary of state, "vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received within seven days after the election, as well as any provisional ballots cast, must still be counted."

County election officials have up to 30 days after the election to count ballots. Final results from Tuesday's primary must be reported to the secretary of state by July 3, 2026.

The process of counting mail-in ballots and validating voters' signatures is also arduous, as each envelope signature must match the signatures on file, which can lead to additional delays.

A new batch of results from Tuesday's Primary Election have dropped. Here's where the races stand for L.A. mayor, California governor.

The next round of election results has dropped. Here's how the race for California governor is shaping up:

With 57% of the expected vote counted, gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton still leads the pack at 27%. Xavier Becerra stands at 26% and Tom Steyer is at 20%. There's still a lot of votes left to count.