California’s vote count can run long because election officials must verify vote-by-mail ballots and make sure the same voter did not cast two ballots, a process Kim Alexander says continues after Election Day. County election officials can start reporting results when polling locations close at 8 p.m. Tuesday, but final outcomes can still shift as late ballots are checked and processed.
Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said the state’s many voting methods create the extra work. “We do have a long vote count in California; part of that is because we give voters lots of different ways to vote, and we make sure that nobody is voting more than once. So, we have to make sure when those vote-by-mail ballots arrive on Election Day, for example, that the voters who cast those ballots didn’t also vote in person. So those checks happen as well in the background,” she said.
Election Day ballot checks
In California, voters can drop off a completed mail ballot at any official drop box or polling place until 8 p.m. tonight. Ballots that arrive on Election Day must be checked against in-person voting records before they can be counted, and that work happens after the polls close. Alexander said, “Because so many voters not only vote by mail, but choose to turn in their ballots very close to, or on, election day, those ballots cannot be processed until after election day,”
Seven-day mail deadline
Ballots sent by mail must be postmarked by today and received by the county elections office within seven days. That means the first results can come in quickly at 8 p.m. Tuesday, while later-counted ballots can still change close contests as counties finish verification. Some races may settle soon after polls close, but tighter ones can take longer because those late-arriving ballots still have to clear the process.
California Secretary of State’s website
Voters who want to follow their ballot can track it through the California Secretary of State’s website. For people who voted late or mailed a ballot near Election Day, that is the practical next step: check whether the ballot moved through the system and wait for counties to finish adding the ballots that arrive after the first returns.
