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Explanation of Election Night Results

On Election Night, the San Bernardino County Elections Office releases unofficial results of voted ballots received from polling places throughout the County and voted mail ballots received prior to and on Election Day.

These results are cumulative and updates are released throughout the night. The first results posting takes place at 8:05 p.m. This posting includes results for mail ballots that were received from the U.S.P.S. and mail ballot drop-off locations prior to Election Day. The second results posting takes place at 10 p.m. and includes results from the 8:05 p.m. posting as well as results for mail ballots received from the U.S.P.S. on Election Morning, and ballots cast at nearby polling places on Election Day.

Results for ballots cast at polling places on Election Day are added every two hours, on the hour thereafter, until the final Election Night count has been completed. Though ballot counting may be completed for the night, the Elections Office will continue to process and count additional ballots in the weeks following the election. The estimated number of ballots remaining to be counted is provided to the public at the final posting of the unofficial Election Night results.

After the election, the Elections Office works diligently to process the remaining ballots to be counted from Election Night. These results include mail ballots received at polling places on Election Day and damaged ballots which require duplication before counting. Upon Certification of the Final Official Election Results, various types of other ballots including provisional ballots, mail ballots that require further signature review, and votes cast on electronic voting machines are added to the results.

Explanation of Number of Precincts Reporting

On Election Night, the public often wants to know how the counting of ballots is progressing and when the counting will be completed. On the Elections Results page, there are some statistics that provide the public with a very rough estimate of how ballot counting is progressing.

Underneath the title of a contest and above the list of candidates in each contest, you will find two numbers separated with a slash followed by a percentage, as shown below:

State Senator District 23
60 / 240    25%

Vote Count Percent
Candidate 1 350 35%
Candidate 2 650 65%
Total 1000 100%

These numbers represent the number of precincts reporting results (60), the total number of precincts located in the jurisdiction of the particular contest (240), and the percentage of precincts reporting results (25%).

As the vote count is updated throughout Election Night, the number of precincts reporting and the percentage of precincts reporting will increase, as shown below:

State Senator District 23
120 / 240   50%

Vote Count Percent
Candidate 1 800 40%
Candidate 2 1200 60%
Total 2000 100%

When all the Election Day ballots from all the precincts located in the jurisdiction are counted, the numbers will read, as shown below:

State Senator District 23
240 / 240   100%

Vote Count Percent
Candidate 1 1000 40%
Candidate 2 1500 60%
Total 2500 100%

The precincts reporting number only provides a very rough estimate of the progress of counting of total ballots for a couple of reasons.

First, it only reports on ballots cast at polling places on Election Day. It does not take into account any Vote-by-Mail ballot totals.

Second, it is simply a snapshot of how many precincts have had their Election Day ballots run through the ballot scanners. It does not take into account the number of ballots in a precinct. Some precincts have hundreds of ballots and other precincts have no ballots at all! So, there is not always a direct correlation between the number of precincts reporting and the number of ballots counted.

In the above example, there were 1,000 votes counted in the first 25 percent of precincts reporting.

In the next 25% of precincts reporting 1,000 votes were added to the results for a total of 2,000 votes.

You might expect to find an additional 2,000 votes in the last 50 percent of precincts reporting, but only an additional 500 votes were counted for a total of 2,500.

The reason is that there are many precincts that have zero voters. In our software program, precincts with zero voters aren’t reported until all other precincts have reported their results. So, in the final update on Election Night, the percentage of precincts reporting will suddenly rise to 100 percent but there may not be a drastic change in the vote count.

For this election, there are 1,772 precincts in San Bernardino County. Of those, many precincts are located in remote areas of the County and have very few registered voters residing in them. In fact, 654 of the county’s 1,772 precincts have no registered voters in them at all.

2016 Presidential Primary Election – Offices Up for Election and Corresponding Precinct Statistics

Jurisdiction Office District Total Voters Total Precincts Precincts With No Voters Mail Ballot Precincts Mail Ballot Precincts With No Voters
American Independent Party President of the United States 784136 1772 654 725 532
CITY OF COLTON MEASURE D 17706 43 16 3 3
County of Riverside Member, Board of Education Area 5 3 1 0 1 0
County of San Bernardino County Supervisor District 1 154723 369 135 190 119
County of San Bernardino County Supervisor District 3 175236 562 238 281 197
County of San Bernardino County Supervisor District 5 136727 281 98 71 59
County of San Bernardino Judge of The Superior Court Office 24 784136 1772 654 725 532
COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO PROPOSITION 50 784136 1772 654 725 532
Democratic Party Member, Central Committee Assembly District 33 182409 648 301 392 276
Democratic Party Member, Central Committee Assembly District 40 196825 413 143 131 105
Democratic Party Member, Central Committee Assembly District 47 157657 304 103 73 61
Democratic Party Member, Central Committee Assembly District 52 103325 158 29 25 25
Democratic Party President of the United States 784136 1772 654 725 532
Green Party President of the United States 784136 1772 654 725 532
Libertarian Party President of the United States 784136 1772 654 725 532
MORONGO VALLEY CSD MEASURE E 1643 4 1 3 1
Peace and Freedom Party President of the United States 784136 1772 654 725 532
Republican Party Member, Central Committee Supervisorial District 1 154723 369 135 190 119
Republican Party Member, Central Committee Supervisorial District 3 175236 562 238 281 197
Republican Party Member, Central Committee Supervisorial District 4 143300 190 34 27 27
Republican Party Member, Central Committee Supervisorial District 5 136727 281 98 71 59
Republican Party President of the United States 784136 1772 654 725 532
State of California Member, State Assembly District 33 182409 648 301 392 276
State of California Member, State Assembly District 36 8511 10 4 1 1
State of California Member, State Assembly District 40 196825 413 143 131 105
State of California Member, State Assembly District 41 50014 55 6 6 4
State of California Member, State Assembly District 42 51620 153 61 91 54
State of California Member, State Assembly District 47 157657 304 103 73 61
State of California Member, State Assembly District 52 103325 158 29 25 25
State of California Member, State Assembly District 55 33775 31 7 6 6
State of California State Senator District 21 127750 175 38 42 31
State of California State Senator District 23 273064 766 337 362 280
State of California State Senator District 25 37583 42 3 2 1
State of California State Senator District 29 33775 31 7 6 6
United States United States Representative District 27 20422 21 1 2 1
United States United States Representative District 31 287018 513 146 102 86
United States United States Representative District 35 176969 253 46 37 35
United States United States Representative District 39 34061 32 7 6 6
United States United States Representative District 8 265666 953 454 578 404
United States United States Senator 784136 1772 654 725 532
Yermo Community Services District Member, Board of Directors To Succeed Geoffrey Berner 617 4 0 2 0
Yermo Community Services District Member, Board of Directors To Succeed Robert Smith 617 4 0 2 0
YERMO CSD Recall Geoffrey Berner 617 4 0 2 0
YERMO CSD Recall Robert Smith 617 4 0 2 0