How to track your California mail-in ballot through the counting process
Bernie Sanders has been declared the winner of California’s Democratic presidential primary, but the election is far from over.
Over the next month, counties will count the number of outstanding ballots and calculate the final results. For the Californians who want to make sure their mail-in vote is counted properly, the state offers a tool. You can track the progress of your ballot in 25 counties, including Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Fresno, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles.
Voters can get an automatic email, text or voice notification alerting them every step of the way through the process through the California Secretary of State’s office. Like a postal service tracking number, the “Where’s My Ballot” feature lets Californians who vote by mail know where their ballot is and its status.
State elections rules require all counties to generate a count of estimated ballots and accept mail-in ballots until Friday if they were postmarked on or before the state’s March 3 primary.
From there, counties go through an arduous process.
Mail-in ballots take a substantial amount of time to process because elections officials must verify signatures. If a voter’s signature on their vote-by-mail is missing or doesn’t match the information on their voter registration, they must be given the opportunity to provide an updated signature before their county has certified their results.
Counties have until April 3 to report their final results to Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who compiles the final statewide results by April 10.
