After weeks of robo-calls, mounds of flyers filling mailboxes and campaign signs cluttering up front yards throughout Los Angeles County, the day has finally arrived:
It’s election day.
So if you haven’t voted yet — now is the time.
Related: Haven’t voted yet? Here’s what to know as primary election day draws near
And it appears plenty of folks haven’t voted yet. The Los Angeles County registrar’s office had received 519,790 vote-by-mail ballots through Sunday, March 3, according to the California Secretary of State’s office; 39,396 people had cast ballots at the county’s regional vote centers.
With about 5.7 million registered voters in LA County, that comes out to a turnout of nearly 10% through Sunday. Of the approximately 6.5 million eligible voters, about 8.6% had cast ballots through Sunday.
That means a lot of ballots would have to come in during the final two days of the election — or during the seven-day window for vote-by-mail ballots to arrive after Tuesday, March 5 — to match recent voter turnout trends.
Voter turnout is traditionally lower for a primary than a general election, though turnout is also higher for both during presidential years like this one. During the 2022 midterms, for example, countywide turnout for the primary and general elections were 28.48% and 43.65%, respectively, according to the registrar’s office. By contrast, turnout for the 2020 primary was 38.5% — and 75.98% of eligible voters cast ballots during that year’s general election.
In 2016, LA County saw 42.13% of eligible voters cast ballots during the presidential primary and 69.45% cast ballots that November.
So to reach the same turnout of eligible voters the county had during the 2020 presidential primary, about 1.9 million additional ballots needed to be received, as of Sunday.
It’s unclear whether that will happen.
But if you’re one of the last-minute voters scrambling to figure out which candidates, propositions and measures to back, good luck — the ballots are packed.
Besides the Democratic and Republican primaries, there are 17 congressional, five state Senate and 24 Assembly races in Los Angeles County. There are also three seats on the county’s Board of Supervisors up for grabs, as well as the district attorney’s race and nearly 170 Superior Court judgeships — and more local city and school board races than we can tally here.
There’s one state proposition as well, and several cities also have local measures on the ballot.
Statewide, folks will also have the opportunity to vote for an open U.S. Senate seat — twice.
There’s no need to feel overwhelmed, however. We have you covered. Go to our 2024 election page online to check out our previews of various races.
Here’s what else you should know about the 2024 statewide primary.
Los Angeles County’s 644 regional Vote Centers opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday and won’t close until 8 p.m.
Unlike the old days, when voters were assigned specific local polling locations, you can now cast your ballots in-person or drop off your vote-by-mail ballots at any of those facilities. Do you live in Long Beach but have to teach a morning class at Cal State Northridge? There’s a vote center on campus you can use. Do you live in Downtown Los Angeles but are having coffee in Hermosa Beach with someone you met on a dating app? There’s a vote center in the beach town you can use. And, of course, you can vote at whichever facility is closest to your home.
Just make sure you’re in line before 8 p.m. To find the most convenient vote center, go to lavote.gov.
If you can’t make it to a vote center — or just loathe in-person voting — there’s no need to worry. You have two other options. And they both involve vote-by-mail ballots.
As the name suggests, you can mail your vote-by-mail ballots. And it’s OK that it’s election day, since vote-by-mail ballots have seven days after Tuesday to make it to the registrar’s office. And the United States Postal Service prioritizes election-related mail.
But there is a caveat: Vote-by-mail ballots must be postmarked by election day. So if you want to drop your vote-by-mail ballot into a mailbox, double check the pick up schedule — or head to your local post office.
If you’re cutting it close, though, you can also place your vote-by-mail ballot in any of the more than 400 dropboxes scattered across the county. That will give you a few more hours, since the dropboxes will be locked at the same time vote centers close — 8 p.m.
You can find the nearest dropbox to you at lavote.gov.
Voting, though, is just part of the election day fun. The real drama comes after the polls close — with folks frantically refreshing their internet browsers to get the latest results.
Well, we have you covered there as well.
To see the latest election results once polls close, visit our election results page.
You can also go to our election page online for more in-depth coverage of specific races.
Now, word to the wise, while we should have a decent sense of how the various races are shaping up by the end of Tuesday, we won’t have the final results for a couple of weeks.
Here’s the schedule of when we’ll get Tuesday night returns, according to registrar’s office spokesperson Michael Sanchez:
Here’s a basic rundown of election night, according to Sanchez (all times are approximate):
After that, the registrar’s office will release the “semi-official results.” The reason they will only be semi-official is because some ballots will still be outstanding.
Those outstanding ballots include vote-by-mail ballots that arrive on Tuesday or during the seven-day window after election day, as well as provisional and conditional ballots.
Those ballots will be processed, verified and tabulated during the 30-day official canvass.
The registrar’s office will provide updates twice a week until every ballot is counted. After that, both county Registrar Dean Logan and the Board of Supervisors must certify the election. (Local agencies must also do so for their races.) The tentative dates for those certifications are March 29 and April 2, respectively.
Then and only then, will the primary results be final — and we can begin looking forward to the Nov. 5 general election.
