LOS ANGELES — Voters across Southern California braved the rain Tuesday morning to cast their ballots in a midterm election that will determine the balance of power in Congress, abortion access and who will lead the nation’s second-largest city.
The mood leading up to Election Day has been one of consternation, with voters grappling with inflation, a scandal that has roiled Los Angeles City Hall and acts of political violence — most recently the assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband — that have left them on edge.
Turnout for the midterm vote — the halfway point of a president’s four-year term — is historically much lower than for a presidential election. The sizable shift to vote-by-mail ballots during the pandemic changed how many Californians participate in elections and means that it can take longer to tally votes than it has in past years.
