Overview
- Election offices released early in‑person totals first and have been working through the night to verify and tabulate mail‑in ballots after Election Day.
- Monterey County has tabulated more than 80,000 ballots so far while San Luis Obispo reports about 45% turnout and expects 40,000–60,000 mail ballots to be processed.
- Signatures, envelope opening and ballot preparation make mail ballots more time‑consuming to count and exclude many late‑received ballots from initial night‑of totals.
- Counties use sheriff escorts, secured truck and U‑Haul transfers, drop boxes and inter‑county sorting to protect chain of custody as thousands of ballots move between offices.
- Officials say they will submit updated estimates to the California Secretary of State and release new totals tomorrow, which could shift local and regional race margins.