CA may not have the results of today's governor (Steve Hilton) and L.A. mayor (Spencer Platt) elections for WEEKS.

"Even after all the ballots have been cast on Tuesday, it might be a while before Californians know the results of some significant races this election, given the state’s notoriously slow counting.

"California has made headlines for trailing other states when it comes to tallying its votes. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a letter last month to all 58 county elections officials urging them to “accurately count every lawfully cast ballot as quickly as possible,” saying that “mis- and dis-information” can spread in the time between Election Day and when the results are certified as official.

"The delay is due in part to ways California has endeavored to make it easier to vote since the COVID-19 pandemic: Every registered voter gets a mail-in ballot, and ballots are valid as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day and arrive at county elections offices within seven days of the election. California’s one of eight states that allow all elections to be conducted by mail, with varying grace periods for ballots that are postmarked by Election Day. Those grace periods are at risk with the U.S. Supreme Court currently weighing a change that would require ballots to arrive by Election Day.

"For mail-in ballots that arrive before Tuesday, elections officials can begin certifying signatures and preparing the ballots for counting; for those that come in later, elections clerks must do this work later, delaying results.

"According to voter data firm Political Data Inc., nearly 17% of registered California voters had cast their ballots as of Monday afternoon, a similar return rate as in 2022.

"Paul Mitchell, the founder of Political Data Inc., said he expects a higher turnout than in 2022, since early returns already have shown a higher Republican turnout, and some of the Democrats hanging onto their ballots are “high-propensity voters.”

“There’s a lot of evidence here that we’re probably headed towards 38%, 40% turnout in total, rather than 33% which was the turnout in 2022,” he said.

"Elections experts say California’s high proportion of competitive districts and generous windows to fix errors have also added to the longer wait time for results.

… "Due to Assembly Bill 5, which was signed into law last year,counties now have 13 days to finish counting most ballots, down from 30 days.… County officials still have 30 days to finalize their official results.

"However, Jesse Salinas, Yolo County’s top elections official and the president of the California Association of Clerks and Elections Officials, said the new law doesn’t apply to the ballots that take the most time to count, including those filed by voters who registered on election day and those where a signature doesn’t match what’s on file. State law provides a weeks-long window for those questions to be addressed.

“I’m hearing these comments about ‘We should be done by the 13th day,’ — that’s legally not possible by state law,” he said.

… "Some have issues with the assertion that the long tabulation process makes it easy for people to sow distrust in election results. … "

https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/06/primary-election-california-counting/