CA Braces For Long Ballot Tally; Vote Must Be Certified By Dec 13th 2024

Message from California’s Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Nov 5th 2024

Unprocessed Ballots Status:

It typically takes weeks for counties to process and count all of the ballots. Elections officials have approximately one month to complete their extensive tallying, auditing, and certification work (known as the official canvass).

Every active, registered voter was sent a vote-by-mail ballot. Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received by the county elections official no later than seven days after the election will be processed and can be counted. In processing vote-by-mail ballots, elections officials must confirm each voter’s registration status, verify each voter’s signature on the vote-by-mail envelope, and ensure each person did not vote elsewhere in the same election before the ballot can be counted.

Other ballots that are processed after Election Day include provisional ballots (processed similar to vote-by-mail ballots), conditional voter registration provisional ballots, and ballots that are damaged or cannot be machine-read and must be remade by elections officials.

State law requires county elections officials to report final official results for presidential electors to the Secretary of State by December 3, 2024, and all other state contests by December 6, 2024. The Secretary of State has until December 13, 2024, to certify the results of the election. For the most up-to-date vote counts before the statewide certified results are published, you may contact a county elections office directly.

Vote-by-mail ballots in a bin at the post office.

Photo from Riverside County Registrar of Voters Oct 8th 2024