Department of Elections
City and County of San Francisco
John Arntz, Director
For Immediate Release
SAN FRANCISCO, Wednesday, March 6, 2024 – The Department of Elections must still process and count approximately 111,000 ballots in the March 5, 2024, Consolidated Presidential Primary Election. This estimate includes:
- Vote-by-mail ballots (received on Election Day by mail, at drop boxes, and at polling places): 103,000.
- Provisional ballots (cast at polling places and the City Hall Voting Center): 7,500.
Estimates of remaining ballots to count will be posted daily at sfelections.org/results, along with all election results reports.
The Department counted nearly all of the ballots received before Election Day. Most remaining ballots to process and count were received on Election Day, from polling places, the City Hall Voting Center, official ballot drop boxes, and the United States Postal Service (USPS). Department personnel will continue processing and counting ballots until 10 p.m. tonight and will maintain the same schedule, 7 a.m. - 10 p.m., on Thursday, March 7. Ballot processing is open to public observation in-person and via livestream at sfelections.org/observe.
In addition to the vote-by-mail ballots and provisional ballots received on Election Day, the Department will also need to process and count any vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within one week of Election Day, or by Tuesday, March 12. Since the Department had not received today’s delivery of vote-by-mail ballots from the USPS prior to issuing this notice, the number of unprocessed ballots does not include any ballots received after Election Day that have valid postmarks on or before Election Day.
The Department will issue the next preliminary results reports at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 7. At that time, Director John Arntz will be available to respond to questions from members of the public and the media outside of Room 48 in City Hall.
No results reports will be issued today. The reason is the Department halted the processing of vote-by-mail ballots at 3 p.m. on Monday, March 4, to facilitate in-person voting at polling places. This halt in the processing of vote-by-mail ballots allowed in-person voters to cast a regular ballot to be tabulated at a polling place, rather than having to vote a provisional ballot. The Department will resume the processing and counting of vote-by-mail ballots this afternoon, after all polling place rosters have been scanned and in-person voting histories have been reflected in voters’ records.
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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