Results posted on election night, Nov. 3, are not final. The California Secretary of State calls them semi-official, and says media calls and concessions on election night are based on those semi-official numbers, not the final results.

What posts first

The first results are usually ballots received before Election Day, including vote-by-mail ballots and ballots cast at early voting locations. Counties may start opening and processing mail ballot envelopes up to 29 days before Election Day, but they cannot release results until polls close. State law requires counties to send their first batch of results to the Secretary of State no more than two hours after they start tallying votes after polls close.

Later election-night updates add in-person ballots cast at vote centers on Election Day.

The 30-day canvass

California counties have 30 days, called the canvass period, to finish the count. During that time they process and count:

  • Provisional ballots
  • Ballots from voters who registered and voted conditionally (same-day registration)
  • Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within seven days of the election

Counties must also do a public 1% manual tally to check the accuracy of the machine count. They must count and report most ballots by the 13th day after the election. Exceptions include ballots that must be duplicated, provisional and conditional ballots, and mail ballots with signature problems that voters are curing.

Certification

Counties must finalize their official results for the Secretary of State by 30 days after the election. The Secretary of State then certifies statewide results 38 days after the election. The Secretary of State's office does not process ballots. Each of the 58 counties reports its own results, and the state compiles them.

Why close races can flip

Many mail ballots are dropped off on Election Day or arrive in the week after, and each one has to be verified before it is counted. So the share of ballots counted after election night can be large, and close Bay Area races may not be settled for days or weeks.