Community Relations Manager Imelda Padilla is leading a group of seven candidates in the race to fill the Los Angeles City Council seat once held by Council Speaker Nury Martinez.
Tuesday was the last day to vote in District 6’s special primary election.
The district has been without a voting representative on the board since October, when Martinez resigned following the release of a recording in which she and two co-workers were part of a discussion that included racist comments about another council member’s young black adopted son.
Voters in Los Angeles District 6 will elect the council member to replace Nury Martinez. reports Norma Ribeiro.
Marisa Alcaraz, Rose Grigoryan and Marco Santana are in a tight race for second place, according to results updated Tuesday night by the Los Angeles County Recorder’s Office.
If no candidate obtains a majority of votes, the first two voters will proceed to a second round. The deadline for voting in the second round would be June 27.
Padilla had 2,288 votes (25.55%), according to figures released Tuesday, at 10:30 p.m. Alcaraz was in second place with 1,723 votes (19.24%); Grigoryan was third with 1,610 votes (17.98%); and Santana in fourth place with 1,568 votes (17.51%).
The next update from election officials is expected Friday afternoon.
Council District 6 covers much of the San Fernandao Valley, including Van Nuys, Arleta, Lake Balboa, Panorama City, Sun Valley, and eastern parts of the North Hills and North Hollywood.
Early voting for the special election began on March 25. The deadline for voting was Tuesday at 8 p.m.
They began tallying votes in the hotly contested election to replace Nury Martinez in Los Angeles’ 6th District, but the tally is expected to last for at least a week. reports Gabriel Huerta.
Turnout was low, with 9,085 registered voters casting their ballots, or 7.67% of the 109,388 registered voters in District 6. There were 8,301 mail-in votes and 784 in-person votes at polling stations. vote.
Here is the list of the seven candidates who appeared on the ballot.
- Marisa Alcaraz: Director of Environmental Policy and Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Environmental Policy for Ninth Ward Councilman Curren Price. she is 38 years old
- Rose Grigorian: Social activist and journalist who emigrated from Armenia ten years ago. she is 37 years old
- Isaac Kim: 34 year old small business owner.
- Imelda Padille: Responsible for community relations. She is 35 years old
- Marco Santana: Director of a nonprofit housing organization who worked for former State Senator Bob Hertzberg and Rep. Tony Cardenas. He is 32 years old.
- Antoinette Scully: 38-year-old community organizer.
- Douglas Sierra: 37-year-old business consultant.
The winner will complete the remainder of Martinez’s term which ends in December 2024.
Following Martinez’s resignation, a non-voting supervisor was appointed. Sharon Tso, the city’s senior legislative analyst, does not hold a council seat but oversees the council office to ensure the district provides voter services and other essential functions.
The special election stems from the publication of a leaked October 2021 conversation about the city’s redistricting that includes Martinez and two council colleagues.
The recordings of three council members making racist comments have sparked much controversy and anger among Los Angeles residents.
The conversation provided a disturbing insight into a closed session that focused primarily on redrawing district lines and veered violently into racial slurs and comments, including slurs referencing the black adopted son of 2 years of Councilman Mike Bonin.
Leaked recording sparked protests at several city council meetings that followed with calls for the resignation of all three panel members.
The other two board members involved in the leaked conversation, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, defied calls to resign. Cedillo lost his re-election bid to Eunessis Hernández in June. De León’s term also expires in December 2024.
This story first appeared on Telemundo 52’s sister station NBCLA. Click on here to read this story in English.