Incumbent Robert Luna is set for a second term as Los Angeles County sheriff after a Nov. 3 rematch that, on the first full day of counting, looked wider than the election that put him in office. The Associated Press called the race for Luna on election night. By Wednesday evening, semi-final returns had him at 68.95% to 31.05% for former sheriff Alex Villanueva.
Those totals are preliminary, and the county is still processing ballots. The Los Angeles Times reported the AP call. The Daily News published the Wednesday split and noted that vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day, along with provisional and conditional ballots, were still to be tallied. Villanueva's Wednesday response, reported by the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, was the line coverage treated as a concession: "The voters of Los Angeles County have spoken, and I respect their decision."
A Wider Margin Than 2022
The same two names produced a decisive result four years ago, and a closer one than this week's preliminary sheet. Luna, then Long Beach's police chief, beat Villanueva 61.3% to 38.7% in 2022, the Daily News reported — a margin of about 23 points. Wednesday's semi-final gap was 37.9 points. The direction matches. The size is not a certified margin. No final sheriff's total has been issued, and the canvass is not finished.
The Ballot Book estimated that the sheriff's race had so far drawn 91.8% as many votes as the governor's race in Los Angeles County, and cautioned that its remaining-ballot figures are estimates. That 91.8% is a comparison between two contests on the same county ballot. It is not a turnout rate, and it is not a forecast of where Luna's share lands once the last tray is counted.
Luna said he was happy to see the initial numbers. He also said he was grateful to voters and believed they had researched the candidates. That is a winner's reading of a lopsided first look. Villanueva's public answer was shorter. Respecting a decision and holding a certified canvass are different steps, and the county is still on the second one.
Ballots Still In The Canvass
California ballots may be postmarked on or before Election Day. They count if they arrive within seven days, LAist reported. From a Tuesday, Nov. 3 election, that receipt window had closed by this Wednesday. What the Daily News described as still outstanding in the semi-final report — timely mail ballots not yet in hand, plus provisional and conditional ballots — is now a processing question more than an arrival question. The county has not published a certified remainder.
The update calendar is specific. L.A. County expected daily vote-count updates, usually around 5 p.m., through Nov. 13, and planned once-a-day updates on Nov. 17, 19, 25 and 27. It also planned multiple updates on Nov. 5 and 6, the two days right after the election. From here, the near-term reports are the weekday afternoon releases through Friday, then four dated drops before certification.
County certification is scheduled for Nov. 27. The California Secretary of State is scheduled to certify results on Dec. 11. The Secretary of State's office posts statewide counts; the sheriff's race is a county contest, and the local tally comes from the L.A. County registrar. A date on that calendar is a deadline, not a preview that Wednesday's 68.95% will be rewritten. It is also the point at which that figure either holds or moves on ballots that were always part of this election.
Two Accounts Of The Same Department
The rematch was an argument about whether the department Luna took over in 2022 had improved. Villanueva said it had fallen apart under Luna's leadership. Luna argued the opposite on crime: that his leadership reduced violent crime, and that homicides in areas patrolled by his deputies were down 25%. His website, as LAist described it, says violent crime has fallen every year in those patrol areas and that homicides are down 25% since 2023. Those figures belong to the candidate. They are not an independent count established in the election record.
The staffing ledger is less dependent on a campaign page. The Times reported that sworn vacancies have risen markedly under both Luna and Villanueva, feeding ballooning overtime costs. The shortage is a two-administration fact. It undercuts any clean story in which one sheriff inherited a full roster and the other emptied it. It also sits beside a victory claim that treats crime percentages as the whole job. Overtime is how a jail shift and a patrol shift get covered when the sworn headcount does not match the posts the department already has to fill.
On a result the AP has called, voters kept the incumbent who is presiding over that bill, not the predecessor who presided over an earlier stretch of the same trend. The ballot did not include a line for how many vacancies close in a second term, or what the overtime costs when they do not.
Jails, Oversight And A Paper Trail
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is the largest sheriff's agency in the country, which means the job is also a jailer's job. The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into conditions at Men's Central Jail. In 2025 the California attorney general filed a lawsuit alleging inhumane and unconstitutional conditions in county jails. Those are an investigation and a set of allegations, not findings delivered by this election. They travel with the office anyway. The department Luna will keep leading is the operator named in that scrutiny.
The rest of the institutional file is just as specific. The department faces staffing challenges, allegations of excessive force, deputy gangs, and friction with the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission. None of that was invented for the 2026 ballot. It is the work sitting under the percentage.
Villanueva's term left a separate record. A county equity oversight panel found he violated discrimination and harassment policies while in office. He denied the allegation. After he left, he was placed on the county's do-not-rehire list. He was also criticized for investigations into critics, including a Los Angeles Times journalist. He ran anyway. The list did not keep him off the ballot. The early count did not put him back in the office.
Arbitration, Overtime And 2028
Early returns also showed county voters favoring Measure A, the Times reported. The measure would establish binding arbitration for public-safety employees who cannot strike. That was an election-night snapshot, inside the same unfinished count as the sheriff's race, not a certified result. If the lead holds, the county would have a required arbitration path for workers who do not have a walkout as leverage. It would sit next to a department already covering vacant sworn posts with overtime. Arbitration can price a dispute. It does not, by itself, fill a jail shift.
The other dated obligation is further out and harder to miss. Luna will help oversee security for the 2028 Olympic Games in and around Los Angeles. Between now and then, a second term runs through a federal look at Men's Central Jail, a state lawsuit over jail conditions, a vacancy trend both sheriffs watched rise, and an oversight commission the department has already been in friction with. The Games are a calendar entry on top of that work, not a substitute for it.
County vote updates are expected around 5 p.m. through Friday, then on Nov. 17, 19, 25 and 27, with county certification scheduled for Nov. 27 and state certification for Dec. 11. Until then, 68.95% is a semi-final. The second term's harder numbers — vacancies, overtime, and whatever the jail cases produce — will not be settled by the canvass either.
