Department of Elections
City and County of San Francisco
John Arntz, Director
For Immediate Release
SAN FRANCISCO, Monday, November 1, 2024 – The Department of Elections provides information regarding the processing of ballots and release of preliminary election results for the November 5, 2024, Consolidated General Election.
I. Election Night Results Reporting
A. The Department will release four preliminary results reports around the following times:
1. 8:45 p.m.
2. 9:45 p.m.
3. 10:45 p.m.
4. The last report will be issued following the receipt of results from all polling places
B. The four preliminary results reports will include votes from the following sources:
1. The 8:45 p.m. first preliminary results report will include vote totals from most of the vote-by-mail ballots the Department received prior to Election Day.
2. The 9:45 p.m. second preliminary report will add votes cast at polling places to the vote-by-mail ballot totals provided in the first report.
3. The 10:45 p.m. third preliminary report will add votes cast at polling places which were received after the second report was issued.
4. The fourth and last preliminary report of the evening will add the remaining votes cast at polling places which were received after the third report was issued.
C. For the first and fourth preliminary results reports, the Department will apply the ranked-choice voting (RCV) method to the local contests for Mayor, Board of Supervisors, City Attorney, District Attorney, and Sheriff (since the contest for Treasurer has one candidate the RCV method will not be applied).
1. These RCV reports will provide tables that detail the round-by-round preliminary results for each contest.
2. The fourth preliminary report will include a new RCV table in the summary of votes cast that shows the number of votes for candidates in the local contests. The table will list the number of votes each candidate received in Round 1 and in the Last Round.
3. The second and third preliminary reports will consist of summaries of votes cast that show only first-choice totals and will not include detailed RCV results reports.
D. All results will be posted on sfelections.gov/results
II. Wednesday, November 6: Estimate of unprocessed ballots received on Election Day.
A. Unprocessed ballots: The Department will provide the first estimate of ballots received on Election Day and remaining for review and processing.
1. In the morning of November 6, the Department will provide an estimate of the number of unprocessed ballots received on Election Day via press release and the Department’s website, sfelections.gov
2. Subscribe to sfelections.gov/trustedinfo to receive press releases and other notices from the Department.
3. The Department expects to receive over 100,000 ballots on Election Day, although this total could exceed 150,000 depending on the turnout.
4. These ballots will include vote-by-mail ballots that voters delivered to polling places and ballot drop-off boxes, provisional ballots cast on Election Day, vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by November 5 and delivered by the United States Postal Service (USPS) on November 5 and November 6.
5. Relatedly, state elections law allows the Department to process ballots received from the USPS through November 12 that are postmarked on or before November 5.
B. The Department will not issue preliminary results reports on Wednesday, November 6.
1. The Department will pause its processing of ballots in the afternoon of Monday, November 4, and will not process ballots on November 5.
2. This pause allows the Department to provide polling places with lists of voters who have already cast ballots, ensuring that any voters appearing at polling places without surrendering their vote-by-mail ballots can receive and vote a regular ballot.
3. This means the preliminary results reports issued on Election Night represent vote-by-mail ballots processed on November 4 or before, and ballots cast at polling places.
4. The Department will commence the processing of ballots in the morning of November 6 and the preliminary results reports the Department issues on Thursday, November 7, will represent ballots processed on Wednesday, November 6.
III. Thursday, November 7: The Department begins issuing daily preliminary results reports
A. The Department will issue preliminary results reports daily around 4 p.m.
B. The daily preliminary reports will include the following:
1. Summary report
2. Ranked-choice voting summary and detailed reports
3. District and Neighborhood statement of the vote
4. Citywide statement of the vote
C. When issuing preliminary results reports, the Department will issue press releases daily that provide updated estimates of the number of ballots remaining for review and processing.
D. Preliminary results reports will be posted to sfelections.gov/results
E. Visit sfelections.gov/trustedinfo to subscribe to receiving press releases from the Department.
IV. Final Results
A. The Department expects to require three weeks to process most of the ballots received on, or postmarked by, Election Day.
B. In accordance with recently implemented state elections law, the Department can certify election results no earlier than December 3.
C. Voters who received notices regarding issues with their vote-by-mail or provisional ballots must resolve those issues two days before the results are certified.
D. The Department intends to provide the Board of Supervisors with the certified election results by December 9.
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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.gov