Garcetti broke the neck-and-neck race and now has a slight lead over opponent Wendy Greuel.

With about 37 percent (83,727 ballots) of precincts counted, Garcetti now has 52.92 percent to Greuel's 47.07 percent. That's a difference of about 12,180 votes. Of the city's 1,311 precincts, the L.A. Times reported that only 493 had reported their totals.

Residents and reporters have been cracking jokes and complaining about the City Clerk's slow counting process throughout the night. L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez has been tweeting repeatedly for the past few hours about the clerk's antiquated system:

At 11 p.m., Greuel addressed her supporters at the Exchange L.A., a nightclub in downtown. She told her son, Thomas, that she ran for mayor for him and reminded her supporters she won her first city council race against Tony Cardenas by just 225 votes.

“When you’re playing in the championship of L.A. politics, sometimes the game goes into overtime,” Greuel said.

Garcetti took the stage shortly after at the Palladium in Hollywood, delivering what almost sounded like a victory speech.

"Tonight is just a beginning," he told the cheering crowd. "Our work has just begun."

At $33 million, the mayoral campaign was the most expensive in L.A.'s history, and will give the city either its first female or first Jewish mayor, though the race is still too close to call.

Some experts say it could take up to three weeks to completely count all the votes. Let's hope we have an answer by tomorrow evening at the latest, for Steve Lopez's sake.

Follow Neon Tommy's Coverage of the  2013 L.A. Mayoral Election

 

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