REAL-TIME RESULTS In Los Angeles County

LOS ANGELES, CA — The polls are closed in Los Angeles County, and voters will soon know who the next district attorney will be, whether Measure J passed, and who was elected to the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles Unified School district, Los Angeles City Council and dozens more city and school board races across the county.

George Gascon led Wednesday in a closely contested race for Los Angeles County district attorney against two-term incumbent Jackie Lacey, garnering more than 54% of the first 2.6 million votes counted.

Tuesday night, with many more ballots remaining to be counted, Lacey was not ready to concede the race, telling ABC7, "I expect those numbers to change and to change in my favor."

Gascon -- a former LAPD assistant chief, chief of police in Mesa, Arizona, and San Francisco D.A. -- positioned himself as a reformer in the race against Lacey. As incumbent, Lacey was plagued by protests from progressives who felt she was not aggressive enough in prosecuting police and sheriff's deputies involved in civilian deaths.

Measure J Wednesday seemed likely to pass, amending the county charter to require that a minimum of 10% of the county's unrestricted general funds be spent on housing, mental health treatment, jail diversion programs and other alternatives to incarceration.

Voters favored the measure by nearly 58% to 42%, based on a Tuesday night count of more than 2.6 million ballots, though many more vote-by-mail and in-person ballots remain to be tallied.

In District 25, LA County's competitive Congressional race, Democrat Christy Smith got off to an early lead with 52.44% of the vote compared to Rep. Mike Garcia who garnered just 47.56% in early returns.

Angelenos are already poised to shatter voting records in the Nov. 3 election. Before Election Day, more than 2 million Angelenos had already voted.

Scroll to the bottom of this story for real-time Los Angeles County election results.

There were few reports of problems at Los Angeles voting centers Tuesday, but after the polls closed, the LAPD declared an unlawful assembly at Staples Center, where anti-Jackie Lacey demonstrators were gathering at Pico Boulevard and Figueroa Street.

"At this time, anyone in the area is to leave immediately and follow all orders from any police officer," the LAPD said on Twitter.

Mail-in and early voting has eclipsed totals from previous years, leading experts to anticipate record turnout. Fears surrounding pandemic voting and alarm triggered by the U.S. Postal Service slowdown likely led to record numbers casting their votes before election day and by mail. While the presidential race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is the main draw, Los Angeles County has one very competitive congressional race in the 25th District at the northern border, the countywide Measure J, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's race and dozens of local measures and city council and school board races from across the county.

There are also a dozen statewide ballot measures that will have profound impacts in Los Angeles, including Proposition 22, governing Uber and Lyft's business models, Proposition 16 ending the state's ban on affirmative action, Proposition 21 expanding rent control, and Propositions 15 and 19, billion dollar measures affecting commercial and residential property taxes for millions of Californians.

Though the early voting may reduce lines at voting centers on election day, the process has had some notable hiccups. Early on, about 2,100 voters received faulty mail-in ballots missing the presidential race. And the California Republican Party picked a fight with the Secretary of State when they placed unofficial ballot drop-off boxes at churches and gun stores around Los Angeles and neighboring counties. And just a few weeks before election day, an arson fire destroyed ballots inside an official Vote by Mail Drop Box outside the Baldwin Park Library.

• Los Angeles District Attorney's Race Results
  
• Measure J Election Results: Los Angeles 2020
• LA County's Measure J Explained
• Candidate Profile: DA Jackie Lacey In Her Own Words
• LA DA Candidate Profile: George Gascón In His Own Words

Authorities in Los Angeles are also preparing for any potential civil unrest on or after election day.

"The most important aspect in our democracy is an election, a right to vote," LAPD Chief Michel Moore told county leaders earlier this month. "We are safe."

The law enforcement community statewide is working together to prepare for contingencies including protest groups that may become violent, he said. The department is working with the Registrar Recorder/County Clerk's office to ensure that people understand the rules of participating in an election and the ways they can vote, added Moore. If there are any disturbances, the LAPD is prepared to issue similar orders put in place in late May and early June due to protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

"We're working with all of our partners, both first responders, emergency partners as well as L.A. County (sheriffs) ... to talk about the approaching election cycle," Moore said.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said the Los Angeles Police Department will be prepared to respond to any incidents of violence or voter intimidation at the polls.

Real-time results are below — use the scroll on the right and the "Jump to contest/measure" drop boxes to select the race of your choice. Patch will be updating the results throughout the night as votes are tallied — refresh the page for the latest updates.

Can't see the widget below? Click here for all Los Angeles County election results.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.