Latest Count Shows Prang Still in Lead in Assessor Race

The latest figures in the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder’s painfully slow count of the votes in the Nov. 4 general election show Jeffrey Prang keeping his lead over John Morris in the contest for L.A. County Assessor.

As of 3 p.m. yesterday, the Registrar’s office was reporting Prang with 50.9 percent of the vote as opposed to 49.1 for Morris. The Registrar’s office to date has tallied 1.1 million votes cast in the Assessor race and has fewer than 100,000 remaining. The remaining votes are mainly associated with mail-in ballots and provisional ballots (ballots cast by voters with some question about their registration).

Given the relative lack of understanding of the Assessor role (he manages a department of 1,500 people who determine the value of real property that Los Angeles County taxes), that contest typically attracts only 70 to 75 percent of votes case in a general election.

While Prang has been hesitant since the election to declare victory because of the slim margin, he recently has said that victory is all but inevitable. The West Hollywood City Council on Monday celebrated his 18 years on the Council with members offering up warm memories of him. Prang himself invited more than a dozen people who are his appointees to various city boards and commissions to the meeting to acknowledge their service. Prang described the meeting as his last on the Council.

Prang is expected to begin the Assessor job (and resign from the City Council) on Dec. 1. City Manager Paul Arevalo told the Council on Monday that the agenda for its meeting on Jan. 19 will include a discussion of whether the Council will appoint someone to fill the remaining two years of Prang’s term or whether it will hold a special election in June.