San Diego County election officials are projecting 80% to 84% voter turnout for the general election, and all those voters are likely going to want to learn the results of these races sooner rather than later.
They’re going to have to wait, because counting votes takes time. While some local races may appear to have a likely winner after several rounds of results are posted by the Registrar of Voters on election night, it will take much longer for the final tallies to be posted and certified.
Here’s what you need to know about the wait for results that starts Tuesday night.
RELATED LINKS
- Everything you need to know to vote in San Diego County
- When will election results be available to California residents? Here’s what to know
Local elections
Voters can expect the first partial results soon after the polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday — results that will include all mail ballots that received and vote center ballots cast in person through Monday. More results will continue to trickle in through the night until all vote centers around San Diego County have reported their Election Day votes.
After that, election officials will release additional partial results on subsequent days — but not every day — this week and next, and even later. Though candidates may concede before then, San Diego County election officials have until Dec. 5 to officially certify results.
So voters may have a sense of how the election will pan out in the next few days, but it could take weeks to know for sure — especially in closer races.
State elections
Take what was written above about just one county in California, and now apply that to all 58 counties in the state. The secretary of state tracks the collection of votes per county at electionresults.sos.ca.gov/returns/status.
Even longer than the San Diego County deadline, California has until Dec. 13 to certify the state’s election results.
Realistically, it might not take that long to know the outcome of most races. But it could still take a while. In recent years, the thousands of California voters who drop off their mail ballots on Election Day have created a bottleneck on election night.
That’s meant that in the past five general elections, an average of 38% of the state’s total votes cast have been tabulated after Election Day. Two years ago, in the 2022 mid, half the votes were counted after Election Day.
National elections
The Associated Press calls races — including congressional ones, like the U.S. Senate race in California — when there is no possibility that the trailing candidate can make up the gap.
Sometimes, if one candidate is significantly behind, a winner can be called quickly. But if the margin is narrow, then every last vote could matter. It takes a while before every vote is counted even in the most efficient jurisdictions in the country.
It also takes time to count every one of the millions of votes because election officials have to process provisional ballots, and to see if they were legitimately cast.
Overseas ballots from military or other U.S. citizens abroad can also trickle in at the last minute. Mail ballots usually land early, but there’s a lengthy process to make sure they’re cast legitimately. If that process doesn’t start before Election Day, it can back up the count.
Some of the sluggishness is due to state-specific election rules. California, the nation’s most populous state, is consistently among the slowest to report all its election results, due to a combination of the size of its electorate, its universal use of mail ballots and its many options for how people can vote.
Once a state’s electors have certified the vote, they send a certificate to Congress. Congress then formally counts and certifies the vote at a special session on Jan. 6. The vice president presides as the envelopes for each state are opened and verified.
Elector College factors in
After state election officials certify their elections, the electoral college steps in. Electors meet in their individual states — never as one body — to certify the election. This year, that will happen on Dec. 17.
Electors are allocated based on how many representatives a state has in the House of Representatives, plus its two senators. It varies by state, but often the electors are picked by state parties.
Once a state’s electors have certified the vote, they send a certificate to Congress. Congress then formally counts and certifies the vote at a special session on Jan. 6, the date used for each election. The vice president presides, as the envelopes for each state are opened and verified.
Once Congress has certified the election, the president is inaugurated Jan. 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
What else do I need to know?
The San Diego Union-Tribune will track election results live. Sign up for our email alerts on sandiegouniontribune.com to get the latest updates on election news.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
