Election Day updates: Here are 6 highlights from early California primary results
California primary election early, unofficial results are in.
Live results can be found at the links below:
This story was updated throughout the day on June 7. The final update was at 9 p.m. Please check sacbee.com for more election coverage and up-to-date results.
8:56 p.m. Tuesday
Here are six highlights from first glance at early returns:
- Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading the gubernatorial race at 60.3% in early returns and Republican candidate Brian Dahle is pulling 15.4%.
- Incumbent Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis is leading the lieutenant governor’s race with 55.9% of the votes. In second place is A. Underwood Jacobs, pulling 18.3% of votes.
Incumbent Attorney General Rob Bonta leads in the state attorney general race early returns with 58.2% of the votes. Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert is in fourth place with 7.7%. Nathan Hochman and Eric Early, both Republicans, holding 17.3% and 14.3% of the votes, respectively, in early returns.
- For California’s Third Congressional District, Democrat Kermit Jones is pulling 43.2% of votes, and Republican Kevin Kiley is drawing in 32.6% of votes. Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones is at 16.5% in early returns.
- Prosecutor Thien Ho is leading the Sacramento County District Attorney race at 58.77% of vote, and falling behind him is Prosecutor Alana Mathews with 41.23% of early return votes. Whichever candidate wins would be the first person of color in the position.
Assemblyman Jim Cooper is leading in the Sacramento County sheriff’s race with 56.85%. Undersheriff Jim Barnes has 43.15%
8:00 p.m. Tuesday
Polls closed and 8 p.m., and two top Sacramento County law enforcement races could be called tonight.
Sacramento County expects the first wave of results at 8:15 p.m., and will update throughout the night. Ballots that were postmarked by Election Day can be received up to seven days after polls close.
July 7 is the last day for officials to certify election results.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Voter turnout across the state of California has been “pretty paltry,” political data analyst Paul Mitchell said in an interview with Fox 40 Tuesday evening.
Mitchell said that expected voter turnout is pretty low even for a gubernatorial primary, when registered voters automatically received mail-in ballots due to a bill that was passed last fall.
The political analyst said that turnout may be low in part because of voter fatigue from the 2020 presidential election and the gubernatorial recall, which had a higher than average turnout.
“It’s possible now that voters are just a little bit done with it.” he said.
5:07 p.m. Tuesday
Election workers are already hard at work counting mail-in ballots at the Sacramento County election office on 65th Street.
Around 1,000 workers have already toiled for more than a week to begin counting Tuesday’s primary election ballots. But as the polls close across the capital, these workers will shift into high gear amid the late wave of ballots.
While turnout is expected to be lower than recent races, the county’s registrar of voters still staffs up with an army of counters and checkers to make sure the process goes smoothly.
Those who answered the call range from retirees to high school students.
“I think it’s just an interesting job for people,” said county spokeswoman Janna Haynes. “It’s something that they’ve never done before, and they seem to enjoy it. We have so many people that return, year after year after year.”
Although the election office retains about 40 full-time employees, most of its staff are seasonal workers trained for specific roles within the election process. This group was made up of volunteers until the 2018 Voters’ Choice Act, when Sacramento County opened 11-day vote centers that left workers with more ballots to process at once.
3:49 p.m. Tuesday
Political Data Intelligence is reporting 18% voter turnout statewide with about 3.8 million ballots returned.
The most recent available data was updated Tuesday, but it is unclear at what time. Turnout through June 6 was reported at 15% Tuesday morning.
Sacramento County’s turnout was reported at 19%.
“The last gubernatorial primary, we were at 42% voter turnout,” said Haynes. “So we would need to literally double.
“I do think that we’ll get close.” During a tour of the Election Office on 65th Street, Haynes said there “just seems to be a little bit of apathy.”
About an hour later, Haynes said turnout is now at 20%.
“I don’t know if it’s because we just had the recall, and people are like, ‘another election, already?,’” she said. Haynes expects a surge of ballots coming in over the next few days, as election offices can accept ballots post-marked by Election Day up to June 14.
Voter turnout for gubernatorial primaries is typically lower than for general presidential elections, said Katharine Campos, a Yolo County election official. As of now, it is difficult to determine how many people will vote in this election.
“It’s hard to tell right now because we do get a lot of ballots through the mail in the last couple days leading up to the election ... ” Campos said. “This isn’t the final turnout so it’s really hard to tell — it could be much higher than this.”
More than 500 people voted in person at the county’s vote center on Election Day.
PDI reports 23% turnout for Yolo County. El Dorado and Placer counties are at 25% and 19%, respectively.
Voting in El Dorado County has been “quiet,” said Registrar of Voters Bill O’Neill.
By 3 p.m., more than 1,100 people countywide had voted in person. O’Neill said he expects turnout to end up between 30% and 35%, which would be higher than the statewide projections.
That pencils out to at least 41,000 ballots returned from the roughly 137,000 registered voters in El Dorado County.
”We’ve seen a lot of people dropping off ballots,” he said of the main drop-off location in Placerville. He estimated roughly 1,700 ballots would whiz through the drop-off location at the elections office Tuesday before the polls close at 8 p.m.
O’Neill said he was somewhat surprised by the turnout, but said that El Dorado County didn’t really have big-ticket races for the primary — only three races were contested, including the 5th District Board of Supervisors seat.
11:37 a.m. Tuesday
Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared to cast his ballot Tuesday morning at an in-person polling center, a tweet shows. He posted: “Happy Election Day, California! Make sure you take the time to vote today!”
Newsom is up for reelection.
10:34 a.m. Tuesday
Sacramento County is reporting 19% voter turnout as of Tuesday morning, said election office spokeswoman Janna Haynes in an email to The Bee. She said the updated numbers come after the county started to process mail from Monday.
In total, she said, 163,045 ballots have been cast in the county.
Of those, 111,082 were mailed in, 49,360 were from drop boxes and 2,603 people voted in person.
There are 864,181 registered voters in the county, she said.
9:26 a.m. Tuesday
Gov. Gavin Newsom is up for reelection, just months after defeating an attempted recall. The Associated Press is reporting Newsom is “expected to cruise to victory.” If elected, it would be his second and final term as California governor.
“Less than a year after handily beating back a recall effort, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is back on the ballot in Tuesday’s primary where the focus this time won’t be on if he wins, but by how much,” The AP reports.
7 a.m. Tuesday
Sacramento County voter turnout
By the time polls opened Tuesday morning, only 17% of early ballots had been returned in Sacramento County, according to Political Data Intelligence.
PDI’s ballot tracker counts 143,000 ballots returned countywide and 44,673 from the city of Sacramento.
Of those voting in the county, 36% are over age 65.
Roughly 21% of voters in Folsom have returned ballots, or 10,182 ballots out of the 48,568 mailed. Of those voters, 43% were over 65, while only 8% were 18 years to 34 years old.
Elk Grove’s turnout is about 15%, with 16,360 ballots returned out of 105,992. Rancho Cordova is also at about 15%. Unincorporated county and Citrus Heights are both at 17%.
There were more than 21 million ballots sent out to eligible voters across California. Between May 9 and June 6, about 15% or 3.3 million have returned their ballots.
5 a.m. Tuesday:
Still haven’t voted?
All poll locations in Sacramento County are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. Don’t vote in person if you already mailed or left your completed ballot at a drop box.
You can find your nearest in-person voting center in Sacramento County by using this interactive map.
Before you get to the polls, you might need to bring some form of identification if it’s your first time voting.
If you already voted by mail, you can track your ballot and see when it was received and accepted.
If you’re still deciding on whether you should vote in this election, consider how local and state officials affect your daily life. Janna Haynes of the Sacramento County elections office and Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation, explain to The Bee why every votes matter this primary election.
Why does this primary matter?
This primary election is one of Sacramento’s biggest local elections in a decade, city hall reporter Theresa Clift writes, as seats are up for city council, sheriff and district attorney:
Sacramento County will get a new sheriff for the first time since 2010, a new district attorney for the first time since 2014, and — for county voters in one district — a new representative on the Board of Supervisors for the first time since 1994.
“It’s turning into a Super Bowl election year when it was supposed to be quiet,’”said Steve Maviglio, a political consultant. “What a lot of people don’t realize is a lot of this will be decided in June.”
Contests for the local election include: Sacramento City Council seats for districts 1, 3 and 5; Sacramento County Board of Supervisor seats for districts 2 and 5; district attorney; and sheriff.
- Read more and see who’s running: Sacramento is heading to a ‘Super Bowl’ election this June. Who’s on the ballot?
California is also seeing a big race statewide, including 10 spots for House of Representatives in California, congressional reporter Gillian Brassil reports:
Several elections in California could determine if the GOP and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, control the chamber.
The party of the president — now Joe Biden, a Democrat — tends to perform poorly in midterm elections. With Biden’s approval rating slipping on inflation, gas prices and pandemic policies, many experts have predicted that Republicans have an upper hand.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s position is also on the ballot, as well as attorney general and U.S. Senate seats.
- Read more: Gavin Newsom survived a California recall. Is he a lock to win another term?
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Check back for updates throughout the day on key races and other election news. Have a question? Email utilityteam@sacbee.com.
This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM.