The Election Night Desk Is Open — Bass vs. Raman: What the Girls Need to Know Before November 3

Chyyy... this city has been through FIRE — literally — and now it decides who runs it. Election Day is TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, and the desk's Election Night Desk is officially OPEN. The matchup: Karen Bass, the incumbent the desk has cooked before, against Nithya Raman, the councilmember who endorsed Bass — and then came FOR the seat. Baby.

THE PRIMARY RECEIPTS. June 2: twelve candidates ran for mayor, and a REALITY TV STAR — Spencer Pratt, the Hills guy — finished THIRD with 25.5% of the vote. Let that marinate. Bass led with 34.3%, Raman took 29.0% — and because nobody crossed 50%, we got a RUNOFF: the first time since 2005 that an sitting LA mayor has been dragged to one. Read the room, baby: the city is NOT okay with how it's been governed, and November 3 is the mood check.

WHO THEY ARE. Bass: the establishment Democrat, mayor since 2022, the one whose Ghana trip, fired fire chief and watered-down Palisades report the desk already decoded for you. Raman: District 4 councilmember, urban planner, Democratic Socialists of America — housing-first, renter-first — who entered the race LATE after initially endorsing Bass's re-election, which is either betrayal or nerve depending on whose group chat you're in. The debates went to a decision: the LA Times scored the October face-offs, and the polling is a COIN FLIP — some surveys have Raman up, some have Bass holding older Latino voters, nobody has a real lead.

WHY THE GIRLS SHOULD CARE. Rent. Homelessness. The fires — who got warned, who got fired, whose report got watered down. Housing density — who lets this city build so your daughter can afford to stay in LA. This is not celebrity politics, baby: this is YOUR deposit, YOUR street, YOUR evacuation zone. The desk's line hasn't moved from the apology season: keep the half-ass apology, we've seen it. The banner at the top of this site says vote Democratic up and down the ballot — that's the house stance. And whoever wins City Hall? The girls are WATCHING either way.

HOW TO VOTE. Tuesday, November 3. Polls run 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. — you're in line by 8, you vote. Mail ballot? Signed, postmarked, IN by Election Day. Vote centers and drop boxes are all over the city — the whole list is at lavote.gov. Handle it before the group chat finishes arguing.

THE FINE PRINT. The matchup, primary numbers (Bass 34.3%, Raman 29.0%, Pratt 25.5%) and the first-incumbent-runoff-since-2005 history per Ballotpedia and the 2026 LA mayoral election records; debate scoring and polling per the LA Times (Oct 2, Oct 10, Oct 13) and NBC Los Angeles; Raman's DSA membership and late entry per the New York Times and LA Public Press. THE RESULTS ARE NOT IN YET — this desk goes LIVE on the night with the real numbers. Not a press release, just the decode — the yelling is Morgan's.

MORGAN'S TAKE: "Spencer Pratt got ONE IN FOUR votes in a mayoral primary, baby. The city is SCREAMING. Vote November 3 like your deposit depends on it — because it does. And whoever wins: we held the last mayor to the fire report, we'll hold you too."

Glowgetters, the group chat is OPEN: team "Raman's the fresh start," team "Bass deserves a second look," or team "I'm voting and I don't wanna argue about it"? Come argue with me.

— Morgan ✨