加州计票工作为何会持续进行

Why the count will go on in California

2026-06-03T06:57:47.115Z / CNN

By Fredreka Schouten

Updated 26 min ago
Updated Jun 3, 2026, 3:04 AM ET
PUBLISHED Jun 3, 2026, 2:57 AM ET

An election worker processes mail-in ballots at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center during California’s state primary election in the City of Industry, California, on June 2, 2026.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

• It’s typical for California’s vote count to continue for days after Election Day due to the state’s universal mail ballot system and large population.
• Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day can be received up to seven days later, and Democratic voters appear to be returning ballots more slowly than in past elections.
• In the governor’s race, Democrat Xavier Becerra is in strong position to advance likely alongside either Republican Steve Hilton or Democrat Tom Steyer.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

California’s elections are never quite over on Election Day, and this year is no different.

The state’s big population and its universal vote-by-mail system add to the time it takes to count the large volume of ballots counties will receive.

In the 2024 general election, for instance, mail ballots accounted for a little more than 80% of the 16.1 million ballots cast that November. Typically, county election officials first process ballots received before Election Day as they roll in and post those results quickly.

But, under state law, mail ballots can be received at local election offices up to seven days after the election, as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day. And officials must verify ballots before they can be counted.

It’s typical for mail ballots counted in the days after the election to skew Democratic.

And in this election, Democratic voters appeared to be returning their ballots at a slower pace than in past elections, according to data from Political Data, Inc., a Democratic-aligned data firm,suggesting that the trend could be even more pronounced**.

Where things stand

California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra speaks during an election night event in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Jae C. Hong/AP

In the California governor’s race, Democratic former US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is in strong position to get one of the two slots in the November election given how votes counted after Election Day in California are typically more Democratic. The other slot is likely to go either Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton or Democratic billionaire investor Tom Steyer.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass advanced to the November election. Republican former reality TV star Spencer Pratt landed in second place behind Bass in the first reports, but later updates found him losing ground to progressive city councilmember Nithya Raman. That trend, coupled with the expected Democratic shift from ballots counted after Election Day, means the second spot remains too early to call.

California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer speaks during an election night event in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Noah Berger/AP

Gubernatorial candidates have told their supporters to prepare for slow results and less-than-typical trends as the count goes on.

Steyer’s campaign said a larger share of Democratic votes are expected to be counted later in the process than in previous elections. Meanwhile, the Trump-endorsed Hilton said he hasn’t “seen anything” that would raise concerns about the validity of the results but criticized the slow process in California.

In an interview with CNN, Hilton called it “ridiculous” that the state has “a system where it could take days or even weeks to get election results.”

CNN’s Arlette Saenz and David Wright contributed to this report.