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Explanation of Election Night Results

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

These results are cumulative and updates are released throughout the night.  The first results posting takes place at approximately 8:30 p.m. after the polls are closed. The polls are considered closed once all voters in line at 8 p.m. have completed voting. This posting includes results for the vast majority of mail ballots received from the U.S. Post Office on or before Election Day and mail ballot drop-off locations prior to Election Day.

Results for ballots cast at polling places on Election Day are added every two hours, thereafter. Ballot counting continues on Election Night until all regular ballots cast at polling places have been counted.  Though ballot counting may be completed for the night, the Registrar of Voters will continue to process and count additional ballots in the weeks following the election.  The estimated number of ballots remaining to be processed is provided to the public shortly after the final posting of the unofficial Election Night results and with each subsequent posting of results until the Final Certified Election Results are posted.

The ballots remaining to be processed include damaged ballots, ballots needing adjudication, mail ballots received on Election Day, mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within three business days following Election Day, mail ballots that require further signature review, provisional ballots, and conditional voter registration provisional ballots.

On Election Night, ballots are scanned using high-speed ballot scanners. To efficiently produce election night results, votes in a write-in space will not be reviewed on election night. These votes are tallied as Unresolved Write-Ins. The Unresolved Write-In tally may include:

  • Votes for qualified candidates whose names appear on the ballot
  • Votes for qualified write-in candidates
  • Names of persons that did not file candidacy papers
  • Stray marks

The Unresolved Write-In tally is included in the Total Votes for all candidates in a contest and impacts the unofficial percentage of votes for each candidate.

A sample of how Unresolved Write-Ins may effect a contest is shown below:

State Senator District 23

Precincts Reported: 240 of 240  (100.00%)

Candidate
Mail Ballot
Designated
Mail Ballot
Polling Place
Provisional
Total
Candidate 1 100 0 975 0 1075 39.1%
Candidate 2 150 0 1475 0 1625 59.1%
Total Votes 250 0 2500 0 2750
  Mail Ballot
Designated
Mail Ballot
Polling Place
Provisional
Total
Unresolved Write-In 0 0 50 0 50

Candidates vote percentages will not add up to 100% until all Unresolved Write-Ins have been reviewed. The Unresolved Write-Ins are reviewed during the canvass and all votes for qualified candidates will be added to the election results upon completion of this review.

Explanation of Results Summary

Advisory:  The voter turnout percentage for the Democratic Party’s Presidential Preference Contest is not correctly reflected on the County’s Final Certified Election Results report. On the report, in this contest only, the number of voters casting a ballot is divided by the total number of all registered voters in the county (1,017,699) instead of being divided just by the number of voters in the Democratic Party (410,175). Likewise, the registration numbers and turnout percentages on the Statement of Votes Cast reports for the Democratic Party’s Presidential Preference Contest are also effected. Use the Registration Summary of Qualified Voters  [pdf] to determine the correct number of registered Democratic voters in each reporting district. Please call our office at (909) 387-8300 if you need additional assistance.

The correct voter turnout percentage for the Democratic Party’s Presidential Preference Contest is 47.76%.

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 Election 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 the number of Precincts Reported out of the total number of precincts, followed by a percentage, as shown below:

State Senator District 23
Precincts Reported: 60 / 240    (25%)

 Candidate  Mail Ballot
Designated
Mail Ballot
 Polling Place
Provisional
Total
Candidate 1 100 0 350 0 450 36%
Candidate 2 150 0 650 0 800 64%
Total Votes 250 0 1000 0 1250 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
Precincts Reported: 120 / 240    (50%)

 Candidate
 Mail Ballot
Designated
Mail Ballot
 Polling Place
Provisional
Total
Candidate 1 100 0 800 0 900 40%
Candidate 2 150 0 1200 0 1350 60%
Total Votes 250 0 2000 0 2250 100%

When all polling place ballots from all precincts in the jurisdiction are counted, with the exception of damaged ballots and ballots requiring adjudication, the numbers will read as shown below:

State Senator District 23
Precincts Reported: 240 / 240    (100%)

 Candidate
 Mail Ballot
Designated
Mail Ballot
 Polling Place
Provisional
 Total
Candidate 1 100 0 1000 0 1100 40%
Candidate 2 150 0 1500 0 1650 60%
Total Votes 250 0 2500 0 2750 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 reports on ballots cast at polling places on Election Day as well as ballots cast in designated mail ballot precincts prior to and on Election Day.  However, it does not take into account any mail ballots cast in precincts with a polling place assignment.

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 examples, there were 250 mail ballot votes counted prior to Election Day.

In the first report that includes polling place results, 1,000 polling place votes were counted in the first 25 percent of precincts reporting.

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

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

The reason is 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 146 precincts.  Of those precincts, some have very few registered voters residing in them.  In fact, 45 precincts of this election’s 146 precincts have no registered voters in them at all.

2020 Presidential Primary Election – Offices Up for Election and Corresponding Precinct Statistics

Jurisdiction Contest District Total Voters Total Precincts Precincts With No Voters Mail Ballot Precincts Mail Ballot Precincts With No Voters
Baker Valley Unified School District Member, Governing Board 159 8 4 8 4
Beaumont Unified School District MEASURE B 3 1 0 1 0
Big Bear Fire Authority Community Facilities District 2019-1 MEASURE I 9,563 45 22 23 22
Chaffey Community College District Member, Governing Board Area 3 68,098 52 2 2 2
Chaffey Community College District Member, Governing Board Area 5 87,810 98 17 13 13
City of Barstow MEASURE F 9,239 49 12 7 3
City of Loma Linda Member, City Council 11,347 18 6 4 4
City of Redlands MEASURE G 40,411 78 30 25 21
City of San Bernardino Member, City Council Ward 3 11,453 38 19 6 6
City of San Bernardino Member, City Council Ward 5 15,970 12 1 0 0
City of San Bernardino Member, City Council Ward 6 11,673 19 5 2 2
City of San Bernardino Member, City Council Ward 7 14,386 16 1 0 0
City of Yucaipa MEASURE E 29,099 51 8 16 7
County of San Bernardino Judge of The Superior Court Office 1 957,579 2,256 822 819 608
County of San Bernardino Judge of The Superior Court Office 16 957,579 2,256 822 819 608
County of San Bernardino Member, Board of Supervisors District 1 185,514 535 210 233 157
County of San Bernardino Member, Board of Supervisors District 3 209,214 718 271 304 207
County of San Bernardino Member, Board of Supervisors District 5 172,353 305 120 84 74
County of San Bernardino Member, Democratic Central Committee District 33 217,787 878 396 440 316
County of San Bernardino Member, Democratic Central Committee District 40 237,701 498 172 150 121
County of San Bernardino Member, Democratic Central Committee District 42 61,500 236 72 101 56
County of San Bernardino Member, Democratic Central Committee District 47 199,973 338 126 86 75
County of San Bernardino Member, Democratic Central Committee District 52 133,912 184 31 26 26
County of San Bernardino Member, Republican Central Committee District 1 185,514 535 210 233 157
County of San Bernardino Member, Republican Central Committee District 4 180,863 222 37 28 28
County of San Bernardino PROPOSITION 13 957,579 2,256 822 819 608
Morongo Unified School District MEASURE C 29,026 164 59 71 46
Mountain View School District School Facilities Improvement District No. 3 MEASURE Z 9,932 10 1 1 1
Rim of The World Unified School District MEASURE A 16,989 162 92 81 67
San Bernardino Mountains Community Hospital District MEASURE H 10,849 71 33 28 21
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 33 217,787 878 396 440 316
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 36 9,589 18 8 1 1
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 40 237,701 498 172 150 121
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 41 57,064 69 9 9 7
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 42 61,500 236 72 101 56
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 47 199,973 338 126 86 75
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 52 133,912 184 31 26 26
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 55 40,053 35 8 6 6
State of California State Senator District 21 154,493 292 86 63 50
State of California State Senator District 23 325,157 930 390 391 299
State of California State Senator District 25 43,414 49 4 3 2
State of California State Senator District 29 40,053 35 8 6 6
United States President of the United States American Independent Presidential Preference 957,579 2,256 822 819 608
United States President of the United States Democratic Presidential Preference 957,579 2,256 822 819 608
United States President of the United States Green Party Presidential Preference 957,579 2,256 822 819 608
United States President of the United States Libertarian Presidential Preference 957,579 2,256 822 819 608
United States President of the United States Peace and Freedom Presidential Preference 957,579 2,256 822 819 608
United States President of the United States Republican Presidential Preference 957,579 2,256 822 819 608
United States United States Representative District 27 22,789 23 2 3 2
United States United States Representative District 31 348,671 623 185 127 109
United States United States Representative District 35 228,450 288 53 40 38
United States United States Representative District 39 40,366 36 8 6 6
United States United States Representative District 8 317,303 1,286 574 643 453
Victor Elementary School District MEASURE D 41,725 68 19 10 9