In the midst of a weekday lunch rush, Xavier Becerra walked through a bustling food hall in Los Angeles, shaking hands with diners and thanking them, in English and Spanish, for their support.
A few hours earlier, and approximately 14 miles southeast of the Figueroa Corridor, Steve Hilton stood outside the L.A. County registrar’s administrative office in Norwalk.
Hilton wasn’t ready to officially declare victory yet since the Associated Press hadn’t called the race at the time of his press conference, but the Republican told the gaggle of reporters that he was “confident” he’d join Becerra in the fall’s runoff election.
It was a tale of two gubernatorial candidates in the Los Angeles area on Tuesday, June 9, just one week after voting officially ended.
One already breathing a sigh of relief to have made it through an uncertain gubernatorial primary for Democrats.
The other talking about getting back on the campaign trail – even though he isn’t “popping the champagne yet.”
Both, though, were peppered with questions about California’s election system, as criticism over the length of time it takes to declare a winner has ramped up, and conspiracy theories and allegations about election fraud have abounded.
Flanked by Gloria Romero, a fellow Republican who is running for lieutenant governor, and more than two dozen supporters, Hilton made a pitch Tuesday morning for voter ID reform, which has qualified for the November ballot.
A simple and immediate way to solve California’s slow vote-counting process, Hilton said, would be to implement voter ID.
Now, every registered California voter is mailed a ballot about a month before Election Day. Voters generally do not need to show an ID in order to vote, but must sign their ballots or otherwise attest they are who they say they are under penalty of perjury.
County election workers check to make sure someone hasn’t attempted to cast multiple ballots and verify signatures on mailed ballot envelopes, using signatures already on file (such as through the DMV), flagging any significant differences.
“If we had voter ID, we wouldn’t need all this endless checking of signatures and verification. … We could get this done quickly, confidently, securely,” Hilton said about the vote count.
Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, Becerra said the process was lengthy but that it was a “good thing” there were so many votes to count.
As of noon Tuesday, more than 8 million ballots statewide had been counted, with more than 1.4 million ballots yet to be processed, according to the secretary of state’s office. More than 27 million Californians are registered to vote.
“I don’t think it’s a great thing that it takes a long time, but the most important thing is: count every vote, make sure that every vote is counted accurately, and then we encourage everybody to vote and vote as soon as they can so we won’t have to see as long a delay,” said Becerra.
When asked about voter ID initiatives, Becerra said he hasn’t yet seen “why” California’s voting system needs overhauling, and in a way required identification could make it more difficult for some to vote.
“I’m against voter suppression,” Becerra said when asked outright his opinion on the ballot measure. “I’m against something that is a solution in search of a problem.”
Instead, Becerra said he’d like to see more people voting earlier during the month between when ballots are mailed out and Election Day.
“It would be great,” he said, “if everyone voted a lot earlier. The more important thing is that they vote, and for some people it’s not always easy.”
“Let’s just have a process that has integrity,” Becerra said.
Traditionally speaking, voter behavior has shown Republicans tend to vote earlier and in person.
And that was particularly true this year: With the race for governor so unsettled heading into the June 2 Election Day, many Democratic voters held onto their ballots for as long as possible to ensure they’d vote for a candidate who could survive the primary and avoid a Democratic lockout.
Hilton had led early in the unofficial vote tallying, but by Friday, Becerra had leapfrogged him and secured his spot in the runoff election.
On Tuesday, Hilton extended an invitation to Becerra to join him in campaigning for voter ID.
“Xavier, join me,” Hilton said. “Go on the campaign trail with me for voter ID.”
“Let’s unite as Californians – Republicans, Democrats, independents. Me and Xavier Becerra, campaigning together for voter ID. That’s the best way of showing Californians that we really are serious about giving this state the modern, efficient, secure election system that we deserve,” he said.
Becerra brushed that off with an invitation of his own: Come visit Mercado la Paloma, a community gathering spot and food hall with booths offering aromatic al pastor tacos at Taqueria Vista Hermoso or steaming curries at Thai Corner or tortas at Oaxacalifornia, he told Hilton. And, of course, there’s Holbox, the Michelin-starred seafood counter.
(For inquiring minds: Becerra sampled tamales, a taquito, panang curry and agua fresca from the vendors around Mercado la Paloma, a campaign spokesperson confirmed.)
Democrat Tom Steyer, who is sitting in third place in the vote count, had no public event scheduled for Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Steyer’s campaign, when asked how the campaign felt about the billionaire environmental advocate’s chances of overtaking Hilton to advance to the November runoff, referred back to a statement from his campaign manager last week, in which she said the campaign was waiting for more ballots to be counted and that it was “going to give democracy time to work.”
What’s next
If the unofficial vote count holds, and it is Becerra and Hilton who lead the gubernatorial ballot in the fall, voters shouldn’t expect much real policy debate in the coming campaign months, said Matt Lesenyie, an expert in political psychology and California politics who teaches at Cal State Long Beach.
Democrats, Lesenyie predicted, would lean into a message of protecting current programs rather than floating ideas of how to change systems to function better or prioritizing some over others.
And on the Republican side, he said he expects to see ramped-up criticisms of California and Los Angeles, in particular, without any real ideas on how to spend money or deal with a majority Democratic legislature.
“Over the next couple of months, we’re going to see an entrenchment of typical partisan themes,” said Lesenyie. “I’d expect simplified, gauzy details.”
Becerra, a former congressman and state attorney general, did not gain traction in the open race for California governor until fairly late in the game. He pitched himself to voters by highlighting his political resume and pointing to the many lawsuits he led on behalf of California, challenging President Donald Trump and his policies during the president’s first administration.
Becerra, 68, also leaned into his healthcare background on the campaign trail, making stops at various community health centers.
His experience as the country’s health secretary was a point of contention during the campaign, though, particularly during the marathon of debates the main gubernatorial candidates participated in just before ballots were mailed out to registered voters in California.
His rivals scrutinized his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and the unaccompanied migrant children crisis in 2021, when Becerra’s Department of Health and Human Services was responsible for shelters where they were housed. Some of them were criticized as having inadequate living conditions, and there were also concerns about authorities failing to thoroughly vet sponsors with whom some children were placed.
Hilton, who was endorsed by Trump, billed himself throughout the campaign as a needed change for California, constantly railing against the Democratic leadership that has led the state for several years.
Hilton, 56, got his start in politics in the United Kingdom. Born in England to immigrant parents from Hungary — his father had found success as a professional hockey goalie before the couple fled during the 1956 revolution — Hilton started working with the Conservative Central Office in 1990.
He would eventually become a close adviser to David Cameron and was credited with softening the prime minister’s appearance. The two have since fallen out, disagreeing over Brexit (the term referring to the U.K. leaving the European Union) and other policy positions.
Whether Hilton’s criticisms of California’s election system will become a staple of his gubernatorial campaign platform or just the top of the moment remains to be seen.
But it wouldn’t be surprising for Hilton to stick with that message, especially as he tries to narrowcast his message to pick up voters who backed Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, or someone else in the primary election, said Lesenyie.
Voter ID, too, is more popular among Americans, including Democrats, across the country than it is with Democratic lawmakers. A Pew Research Center survey of 3,554 adults in August found that 95% of Republicans polled supported requiring voters to present a government-issued ID to cast a ballot, while 71% of Democrats did as well.
“I expect it to be a thematic focal point: ‘The system is rigged, and we would win if they would let us compete in a fair system,’” said Lesenyie of Hilton’s campaign message.
And that’s especially true considering Hilton has two key figures in his orbit promoting that message.
Trump has often alleged rampant voter fraud that has hampered Republicans’ success — and his base has largely accepted these sentiments to be true, despite no evidence backing up his accusations.
Hilton, though, said Tuesday that lawyers and other observers have been watching the ballot counting process closely, and so far, they hadn’t observed anything that would raise eyebrows.
“We’ve seen nothing that would warrant that kind of intervention,” Hilton said, adding that he had confidence that Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney, and the U.S. Department of Justice were on top of making sure fraud wasn’t taking place.
And then there’s Spencer Pratt, the reality television star turned L.A. mayoral candidate who is on track to come in third place in that contest, unofficial results show.
“Spencer Pratt will have some earned media around him, not making it to the finale for some time,” said Lesenyie. “That would benefit Hilton because you’ll have two people cruising around, getting airtime on this idea that the system is broken.”
Hilton called it a “travesty” that Angelenos won’t have Pratt on the ballot in November. The Associated Press called that race for incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass and progressive Councilmember Nithya Raman Monday evening.
“I’m looking forward to talking to Spencer,” Hilton said, “and understanding what we can do together to save the city that we love and the state that we love.”