Department of Elections
City and County of San Francisco
John Arntz, Director
For Immediate Release
SAN FRANCISCO, Wednesday, February 28, 2024 – On Election Night, the Department of Elections will begin reporting election results for the City and County of San Francisco’s March 5, 2024, Consolidated Presidential Primary Election.
As in every past San Francisco public election, a complete tally of votes will not be available on Election Night. This is the case mainly because state law requires elections officials to continue processing certain types of ballots after Election Day. Such ballots include vote-by-mail ballots returned by voters on Election Day, provisional ballots cast on Election Day, vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within seven days after that day, and challenged vote-by-mail ballots which have been successfully resolved by voters prior to certification.
All local elections results reports will be posted at sfelections.org/results. The first tab on this page will provide the election results reporting schedule. The second tab will provide an election results summary, as well as information on local turnout, registration, uncounted ballots remaining, and contest data. The third tab will provide the Statement of the Vote, which will list data by precinct, district, and neighborhood and the Cast Vote Record, which will show the raw data of votes cast in the election (in JSON). The fourth tab will provide a link to access the Secretary of State’s website to view statewide results.
Election Night
All of the election results reports released on Election Night will be preliminary and will change in the canvass period.
After the polls close, the Department will issue four preliminary election results reports. The first, showing results from most of the vote-by-mail ballots received before Election Day, will be issued at approximately 8:45 p.m. The second and third, incorporating Election Day results from reporting polling places, will be issued at approximately 9:45 p.m. and 10:45 p.m., respectively. The fourth, with all Election Day polling place results, will be issued as soon as all 514 precincts have reported.
These results will be posted at sfelections.org/results. Hard copies of the results summary will be available in Room 48 of City Hall as well as in the North Light Court of City Hall, where Director John Arntz will be available to respond to questions from the media and members of the public. Results will also be available via the ticker on SFGTV, Channel 26.
Canvass Period
Depending on the volumes of different types of ballots, it may take up to 30 days for the Department to verify voter records, determine if ballots have been cast by eligible voters, and include those ballots in the final election results tally.
Beginning Wednesday, March 6, the Department will post the approximate number of ballots left to be processed and will update that number daily. Then, the first post-Election Day preliminary results reports will be posted at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 7. (No results reports will be issued on Wednesday, March 6.)
On every ballot processing day in the canvass period, the Department will release results reports at approximately 4 p.m. and Director John Arntz will be present for questions from the public outside of Room 48 in City Hall. (On days the Department does not count ballots, the Department will post a notice on its website to that effect.)
Final Results
The Department will release final election results on its website and via a press release no later than April 4, 2024.
By law, the Department has 30 days, officially known as the “canvass period,” to count every valid ballot and to conduct a post-election audit. During this period, after processing ballots, the Department will conduct a public 1% manual tally and a risk-limiting audit of the ballots tabulated by the voting system in order to verify the accuracy of the automated count.
###
Department of Elections
City and County of San Francisco
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place,
City Hall, Room 48
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 554-4375
Sfelections.org