California officials began opening and processing vote-by-mail ballots 29 days before Nov. 3, but the results can't be shared with the public until polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day. The vote count will continue all day Tuesday, overnight and for many more days. Even with a record number of people voting early this year in the state, the process could take up to a month.
The first results will be posted after polls close at 8 p.m. today (find those here), but results won't be certified until Dec. 11. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla is asking the public to be patient as the state goes through a process that's legal and emphasizes security over expedience.
“On Election Night, we will have a good picture of most contests, but the outcomes of close contests may take days or weeks to settle. This is normal,” said Secretary of State Alex Padilla in a statement. "Baseless accusations of fraud during the thorough and transparent vote count process only serve to undermine confidence in our democracy."
In the Golden State, ballots postmarked on or before Election Day can arrive up until November 20 and still be processed and counted.
County elections officials must report final results for the presidential contest by Dec. 1 and all other state and federal contests by Dec. 4. The secretary of state will certify the results on Dec. 11, 2020.
“By law, county election officials have 30 days to count every valid ballot and conduct a post-election audit," said Padilla. "Every vote-by-mail ballot goes through signature verification. Several safety nets to protect voting rights, including Same Day Voter Registration and provisional ballots, require additional processing time by elections officials, but we’d rather get it right than get it fast.”
The first election results that appear on the state site and county sites "are typically ballots received before Election Day," according to Padilla's office.
Typically, counties can’t starting counting vote-by-mail ballots until 10 business days before an election, but this year, due to an increased volume of vote-by-mail ballots amid the pandemic, urgency legislation allowed for an earlier start date.
Two days after Election Day, counties will report to the state an estimate number of remaining unprocessed ballots, and these will be posted and updated daily by the the secretary of state’s office.
California has seen a record number of voters cast their ballots early, with more than 11 million people turning in their ballots as of Monday morning. This number represents more than half of the active registered voters in the state. Despite the flood of early voting, results aren't expected earlier than usual, said Sam Mahood, a spokesperson for California Secretary of State Alex Padilla's office.
"We have this idea Election Day is supposed to be when we find out who wins," said Mahood. "No, Election Day is the deadline for voting. We need time to make sure ballots are counted and secure."
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