SF ballot returns are tracking 2022's pace, pointing to about 63% turnout
About 57,757 San Francisco ballots, or 10.8%, were back as of Oct. 22, nearly matching the 2022 midterm. Statewide returns topped 2.7 million.
By the Bay Area Brief staff · Edited by Seamus McKenna · · 2 min read
San Francisco City Hall dome on a clear day. Photo: King of Hearts / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped, resized and color-graded). Archive photo of the area; not a photo of the events in this story.
San Francisco voters had returned 57,757 ballots, or 10.8% of registered voters, as of Oct. 22, almost exactly the 10.7% returned at the same point before the 2022 midterm, GrowSF reports.
Why it matters: If that pace holds, GrowSF projects final turnout around 63%, or about 340,000 ballots. San Francisco turnout was 62.3% in the 2022 midterm and 78.9% in the 2024 presidential election. Election Day is Nov. 3.
Statewide picture
California voters had returned 2,722,798 ballots through Oct. 24, about 11.8% of 23,149,787 registered voters, according to the Civiq ballot tracker.
Registered Democrats cast 50.1% of returns, Republicans 29.1% and others 20.8%.
Voters 65 and older cast 54.4% of ballots returned so far, while voters 18 to 29 cast 6.1%.
Returns are 593,603 ahead of the 2026 primary at the same point but 1,542,275 behind the 2024 general election.
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The damage appears limited to the outer mailer, the Department of Elections says. If all four ballot cards and the return envelope are intact, the ballot can still be voted and returned.
A USC Democracy and Fair Elections Lab poll of 454 likely voters, taken Oct. 16-19, has state Sen. Scott Wiener at 47% and Supervisor Connie Chan at 41% in the race to replace Nancy Pelosi, with 9% undecided. The lead is within the margin of error.
Prop A is a charter amendment its backers call 110 small fixes. It would move many commissions into ordinary city law that supervisors can change without a public vote, change how legal settlements are approved and give the city administrator more control over real estate deals.
Prop E, one of three Lurie charter measures, would put the city administrator in charge of purchasing rules citywide, including Muni, the PUC, the airport and the port, raise the contract amounts that need supervisor approval and double the administrator's term to 10 years.
