Updated: March 5th Primary results are in

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Election Results:

Updated 7:30 am: With the results of the March 5 primary now tallied, we now know that Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel will face each other in a May run-off election that will determine the next mayor of Los Angeles. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is being termed out of office.

A meager 16 percent of the city’s registered voters showed up at the polls yesterday – that translates to 320,920 votes cast out of 1.8 million registered voters.

Here are some of the down ballot results: In the race for city attorney, challenger Mike Feuer earned 43 percent of the vote and will face incumbent Carmen Trutanich, who came in second with 30 percent of the total, in a runoff.  The same goes for the city Controller’s race, with Ron Galperin going up against Dennis Zine. Both men took 37 percent of the vote.

Proposition A, the measure that would have increased the city sales tax by half a cent to 9.5 percent, failed to pass. Voters rejected it by an 11-point margin.

LAUSD incumbents Steve Zimmer and Monica Garcia held onto their seats.

Results for the rest of the contests, including eight L.A. City Council seats, are here. And we’ll have continuing coverage throughout the day on All Things Considered and Which Way, LA? at 89.9 KCRW.

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Updated 11:35 pm: A few more ballots counted, all the positions noted below remain the same as of now.

We’re signing off for the night. Tune in to Morning Edition starting at 5 am for complete results. Warren Olney will be on to explain who won, who lost and who will be in a runoff.

Or, if you want to stay on top of the ballot count throughout the night, keep checking back here.

Goodnight from Which Way, LA?

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Updated 11:10 pm: Even more returns in now. About 23 percent of the poll ballots tallied now. Garcetti continues to hold a small lead over Greuel — the runoff seems more and more likely.

Run-off elections are also likely in the race for city attorney, with Mike Feuer and incumbent Carmen Trutanich going head to head, and in the city Controller’s race, with Ron Galperin up against Dennis Zine.

Most incumbents in the races for City Council and LA school board remain in the lead. And Prop A is losing by a narrow margin, 53 percent to 47 percent.

With such small numbers of votes having been tallied, and such a small turnout overall, all of these results could shift in the coming hours as more ballots are counted.

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Updated 10:38 pm: Now with just under 12 percent of the poll ballots counted, combined with most of the mail-ins, the leaders we saw at first remain the leaders now.

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti are neck and neck in the race for mayor and appear to be headed for a May runoff.

Mike Feuer is inches ahead of incumbent Carmen Trutanich in the race for LA City Attorney.

The half-cent sales tax Prop A is losing, but is gaining a modicum of steam as the poll ballots get counted.

LAUSD incumbents Steve Zimmer and Monica Garcia are so far holding onto their seats.

The City Clerk’s office is posting updates here.

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Updated 10:19 pm: Finally, an update. With just over 3 percent of precincts reporting, none of the early results have shown any dramatic change. But at least there are ballots being counted! As we noted before, we will have full results starting on Morning Edition tomorrow. We’ll stick around here a little longer tonight to see if we get some more meaningful results tonight.

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Updated 9:47 pm: The City Clerk’s site hasn’t posted an update for an hour. We’re still here!

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Updated 9:23 pm: Election results are beginning to trickle in for today’s primary election, in which Los Angeles city voters cast ballots for the next mayor, along with City Council members, school board members and a handful of measures.

The mayor’s race is shaping up as expected, as a close contest between candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti. If neither wins an outright majority, the two would meet in a run-off election in May.

The half-cent sales tax measure known as Prop A is trailing in early results.

School board members Steve Zimmer and Monica Garcia looked to be holding their seats, with Antonio Sanchez ahead in the race for LA school board district seat 6.

Dennis Zine was ahead in the race for Controller and challenger Mike Feuer was ahead in his challenge for the seat held by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich.

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You can track the returns here. 

Did you vote? Turnout is expected to be low as Angelenos head to the polls to begin the process of choosing the next mayor of LA, and to vote on a bevy of local positions.

Here is, in order, City Councilman Eric Garcetti, City Controller Wendy Greuel, businessman Kevin James, City Councilwoman Jan Perry and technology executive Emanuel Pleitez discussing today’s low voter turnout:

None of the candidates is expected to win an outright majority, which means the top finishers will likely face-off in May.

Find out where your polling place is.

Here’s some helpful reading on the top mayoral candidates:

Emanuel Pleitez

Interview with Warren Olney

Eric Garcetti

Interview with Warren Olney

Wendy Greuel

Interview with Warren Olney

Jan Perry 

Interview with Warren Olney

Kevin James

Interview with Warren Olney

Voters will also be choosing a City Controller and a City Attorney. KCRW hosted debates for each position:

There are also City Council seats up for grabs, and a heated school board race. Three of the seven seats on the elected board of the LA Unified School District are up for election tomorrow. Two are likely to end up in runoffs. But there are only two candidates for District 4, incumbent Steve Zimmer and challenger Kate Anderson. We previewed this race on Which Way, LA?