Secretary of State

California still must count 4.5 million ballots, a bigger job than what it faced two days after the election in 2016.

California prepared for the worst but voters largely were masked and socially distanced, and unrest was limited to isolated protests.

More than 11 million ballots had been returned to California elections departments as of Saturday. Many already have been processed, and are ready to be quickly totaled on election night. Look for early returns by 8:30 p.m.

 Lea este artículo en español. It’s the weekend before Election Day.  Elections officials across California are already processing the 9 million-plus ballots returned thus far.  But don’t expect the full picture to emerge until well after November 3.  Counting all vote-by-mail, provisional and same-day voter registration ballots, in addition to those in-person ballots cast in the […]

It was a succinct appraisal of the state of mind of county election officials grappling with the new normal of voting in the year of a pandemic, disinformation and threats of voter intimidation. Across California, officials have been training workers at polling places and vote centers in new protocols, acquiring equipment to protect voters and […]

Flo Hodes is doing everything she can to avoid post-Election Day BS. A Democratic voter living in Oakland, she has watched with mounting concern President Donald Trump’s refusal to say whether he will abide by the reported election results, his continued efforts to undermine public confidence in voting by mail, and recent operational changes at […]

After the electoral hammering California Republicans took in 2018, the party decided to put aside any misgivings it had about “ballot harvesting” and set up its own operation. In so doing, it’s now earned itself a cease-and-desist letter from California’s Democratic secretary of state. At issue: Unofficial ballot drop boxes that the state GOP purchased […]

When debate moderator Chris Wallace asked President Donald Trump last night whether he would urge his supporters “not to engage in any civil unrest” while ballots are being counted and to “not declare victory until the election has been independently certified,” the president responded with a very different appeal to his base. “I’m urging my […]

Arabic-speaking Californians will need translated ballots so their marginalized voices will have a say in the November election.

Now that the coronavirus has turned Election Day into a latent superspreader event, the state’s Democratic lawmakers are making the 2020 general election an (almost) all-mail affair. Here's what that might look like.