California primary voting continues as governor's race tightens Play

Voting continues in the California primary election. If you live in L.A. County, you can take your vote-by-mail ballot and drop it off at either the secure vote collection box at the Malibu Library, or at the polling vote center that is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Malibu City Hall.

It is beginning to get a little late to mail them in and get them delivered on time. Better to drop them off, if you want to make sure your vote counts.

Two weeks from now we'll probably know which of the 61 candidates for governor have finished 1-2 in the primary election.

Political columnist Dan Walters posts this at CalMatters, the statewide nonprofit journalism cooperative. But notice he uses the adverb "probably." That's a weasel word, but Walters says it is warranted because the three top contenders are in a close race. California is notorious for taking a long time to count mail-in ballots.

The latest Democratic Party poll has Republican Steve Hilton at 22 percent and Democrat Xavier Becerra at 21 percent. Statistically speaking, that is a tie. Billionaire Tom Steyer is still alive at 15 percent, but all other once-viable candidates are trailing in single digits.

Walters predicts we will see one of three outcomes. The most likely is that Democrat Becerra and Republican Hilton are the top two finishers and will face each other in the November election. Steyer might pull off an upset, bump Becerra, and face Hilton in the fall general election. Or it is still possible that no Republican will finish in the top two, and Becerra may face Steyer this fall.

Writes Walters, Hilton's only realistic chance of winning in November would be for his Democratic rival to somehow self-destruct.

Here is a dirty little Democratic Party secret. They are playing up Steve Hilton's ties to President Donald Trump. That message is aimed at Republicans — an effort to draw Trump supporters to vote for Hilton. That would boost Hilton into the runoff, thus avoiding a Democrat-vs-Democrat showdown.

Democrats had been clutching their pearls about a possible 1-2 Republican primary finish. That's not likely now, because of the self-implosion executed by Democrat Eric Swalwell. That pushed Becerra into prominence.