Vote-By-Mail Status


California elections officials count all legally cast ballots and include them in the final election results, but some counties may take longer to count ballots than others.

For vote-by-mail ballots to be included in the official results, elections officials must receive them by the 8:00 p.m. close of polls on Election Day. On Election Day, vote-by-mail voters may still hand-deliver completed ballots to the main elections office or to any polling place in the county where they are registered to vote.

Voted vote-by-mail ballots received by county elections officials prior to Election Day are verified against voter registration records and then are held for counting on Election Night. These results are announced on Election Night along with ballots cast at polling places. Voted vote-by-mail ballots that are received in the mail or returned to polling places on Election Day cannot be counted until they are verified against voter registration records. Elections officials have 28 days after Election Day to complete the "canvass" or final report of the vote, including checking and processing all valid vote-by-mail ballots.

For a final and complete listing of the provisional and vote-by-mail ballots tallied by each county, please refer to the Statement of Vote for the February 2008 Presidential Primary Election.