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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 the vast majority of mail ballots that were received from the U.S. Post Office 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 the balance of mail ballots received prior to Election Day, results for mail ballots received from the U.S. Post Office on Election Morning, and results for ballots cast by noon at approximately 296 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 1,789 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, 657 of the county’s 1,789 precincts have no registered voters in them at all.

2016 Presidential General 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
Adelanto School District Member, Governing Board 19064 36 13 12 5
ALTA LOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT MEASURE H 32434 37 9 11 9
APPLE VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT MEASURE A 40831 51 10 14 9
Barstow Community College District Member, Governing Board 15173 91 35 70 35
BARSTOW UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT MEASURE F 12597 46 12 29 12
Barstow Unified School District Member, Governing Board 12597 46 12 29 12
Bear Valley Community Healthcare District Member, Board of Directors 9558 56 36 37 34
Beaumont Unified School District Member, Governing Board Area 5 2 1 0 1 0
Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District Member, Board of Directors Division 1 4 2 0 2 0
Big Bear Airport District Member, Board of Directors 9558 56 36 37 34
Big Bear City Community Services District Member, Board of Directors 6476 31 20 20 20
Central School District Member, Governing Board 19718 18 2 0 0
Chaffey Joint Union High School District Member, Governing Board 176184 205 43 42 38
Chino Basin Water Conservation District Member, Board of Directors Division 5 22349 28 0 0 0
CHINO VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT MEASURE G 80759 96 16 13 13
Chino Valley Unified School District Member, Governing Board 80759 96 16 13 13
CITY OF ADELANTO MEASURE R 10152 20 11 10 9
CITY OF ADELANTO MEASURE S 10152 20 11 10 9
City of Adelanto Member, City Council 10152 20 11 10 9
City of Chino Mayor 34144 47 11 7 7
City of Chino Member, City Council District 1 7492 14 0 0 0
City of Chino Member, City Council District 4 8819 17 10 7 7
City of Chino Hills Member, City Council 37674 30 6 6 6
City of Colton City Clerk 19815 43 16 3 3
City of Colton City Treasurer 19815 43 16 3 3
CITY OF COLTON MEASURE T 19815 43 16 3 3
City of Colton Member, City Council District 3 2906 4 1 0 0
City of Colton Member, City Council District 5 3932 11 5 1 1
City of Colton Member, City Council District 6 3231 9 4 1 1
City of Fontana Member, City Council 76276 73 7 5 4
City of Grand Terrace Member, City Council 6419 8 0 0 0
City of Hesperia Member, City Council 37804 35 3 4 3
City of Highland Member, City Council District 1 3843 5 0 0 0
City of Highland Member, City Council District 2 3620 6 1 1 1
City of Highland Member, City Council District 4 6242 10 3 2 2
City of Highland Member, City Council District 5 6316 15 7 6 6
City of Montclair Member, City Council 13135 10 1 0 0
City of Needles Mayor 1752 2 0 0 0
City of Needles Member, City Council 1752 2 0 0 0
City of Ontario City Clerk 60926 73 8 8 8
City of Ontario City Treasurer 60926 73 8 8 8
City of Ontario Member, City Council 60926 73 8 8 8
City of Rancho Cucamonga City Clerk 86569 83 13 9 9
City of Rancho Cucamonga City Treasurer 86569 83 13 9 9
CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA MEASURE Q 86569 83 13 9 9
City of Rancho Cucamonga Member, City Council 86569 83 13 9 9
City of Redlands City Clerk 38233 57 20 17 14
City of Redlands City Treasurer 38233 57 20 17 14
City of Redlands Member, City Council 38233 57 20 17 14
City of Rialto City Clerk 38825 56 17 15 13
City of Rialto City Treasurer 38825 56 17 15 13
City of Rialto Mayor 38825 56 17 15 13
City of Rialto Member, City Council 38825 56 17 15 13
CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO MEASURE L 87673 177 58 31 31
CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO MEASURE N 87673 177 58 31 31
CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO MEASURE O 87673 177 58 31 31
CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO MEASURE P 87673 177 58 31 31
City of Twentynine Palms Member, City Council 5886 6 1 1 1
City of Upland City Treasurer 39857 41 6 4 4
City of Upland Mayor 39857 41 6 4 4
CITY OF UPLAND MEASURE U 39857 41 6 4 4
City of Upland Member, City Council 39857 41 6 4 4
CITY OF VICTORVILLE MEASURE X 45638 52 7 9 6
City of Victorville Member, City Council 45638 52 7 9 6
City of Yucaipa Member, City Council District 3 4630 3 0 0 0
City of Yucaipa Member, City Council District 4 5344 4 0 0 0
City of Yucaipa Member, City Council District 5 6104 11 2 6 2
County of San Bernardino County Supervisor District 1 172011 372 136 190 117
County of San Bernardino Judge of The Superior Court Office 24 888019 1789 657 733 535
County of San Bernardino Member, Board of Education Area C 166725 208 44 42 40
County of San Bernardino Member, Board of Education Area E 189470 596 275 294 214
ETIWANDA SCHOOL DISTRICT MEASURE I 44873 50 14 14 12
Etiwanda School District Member, Governing Board 44873 50 14 14 12
Fontana Unified School District Member, Governing Board 60245 67 14 16 14
Helendale School District Member, Governing Board 3235 5 0 3 0
Hesperia Recreation And Park District Member, Board of Directors 38910 47 10 14 10
Hesperia Unified School District Member, Governing Board 42714 75 28 35 27
Hi-Desert Memorial Healthcare District Member, Board of Directors 25237 92 43 55 37
Indian Wells Valley Water District Member, Board of Directors 95 3 2 3 2
Inland Empire Utilities Agency Member, Board of Directors Division 1 72758 80 12 9 9
Inland Empire Utilities Agency Member, Board of Directors Division 2 53844 64 8 8 8
Joshua Basin Water District Member, Board of Directors 4214 7 0 3 0
KERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE MEASURE J 794 12 8 11 8
Lucerne Valley Unified School District Member, Governing Board 2945 24 15 21 15
Mojave Water Agency Member, Board of Directors Division 3 29633 47 9 14 8
Morongo Unified School District Member, Governing Board 26901 97 46 59 40
Mountain View School District Member, Governing Board 9687 13 2 1 1
Mt Baldy Joint School District Member, Governing Board 276 3 1 1 1
MUROC JOINT UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT MEASURE M 14 1 0 1 0
Needles Unified School District Member, Governing Board Area 2 2378 21 11 18 11
ONTARIO-MONTCLAIR SCHOOL DISTRICT MEASURE K 57650 58 3 3 3
Ontario-Montclair School District Member, Governing Board 57650 58 3 3 3
Redlands Unified School District Member, Governing Board 66009 150 66 70 51
Rialto Unified School District Member, Governing Board 47568 81 31 32 27
Rim of The World Unified School District Member, Governing Board Area 1 15999 133 77 80 66
Rubidoux Community Services District Member, Board of Directors 0 1 1 1 1
RUNNING SPRINGS WD MEASURE B 2499 16 7 7 4
San Bernardino Community College District Member, Governing Board Area 1 38041 79 27 12 10
San Bernardino Community College District Member, Governing Board Area 5 50730 171 80 88 65
San Bernardino Community College District Member, Governing Board Area 7 46530 145 61 57 50
San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District Member, Board of Directors Division 1 51499 88 30 27 23
San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District Member, Board of Directors Division 2 48547 106 40 25 23
San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency Member, Board of Directors Division 1 0 1 1 1 1
Snowline Joint Unified School District Member, Governing Board 18765 34 12 3 3
State of California Member, State Assembly District 33 202250 652 301 393 274
State of California Member, State Assembly District 36 9168 10 4 1 1
State of California Member, State Assembly District 40 225066 413 142 131 104
State of California Member, State Assembly District 41 55594 55 6 6 4
State of California Member, State Assembly District 42 57493 157 60 92 54
State of California Member, State Assembly District 47 180789 310 108 79 67
State of California Member, State Assembly District 52 119985 161 29 25 25
State of California Member, State Assembly District 55 37674 31 7 6 6
State of California PROPOSITION 51 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 52 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 53 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 54 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 55 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 56 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 57 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 58 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 59 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 60 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 61 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 62 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 63 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 64 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 65 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 66 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California PROPOSITION 67 888019 1789 657 733 535
State of California State Senator District 21 142542 178 41 42 31
State of California State Senator District 23 308156 770 332 363 276
State of California State Senator District 25 42259 42 3 2 1
State of California State Senator District 29 37674 31 7 6 6
TOWN OF APPLE VALLEY MEASURE V 36517 35 7 8 6
TOWN OF APPLE VALLEY MEASURE W 36517 35 7 8 6
Town of Apple Valley Member, Town Council 36517 35 7 8 6
TOWN OF YUCCA VALLEY MEASURE Y 10471 11 1 3 1
TOWN OF YUCCA VALLEY MEASURE Z 10471 11 1 3 1
Town of Yucca Valley Member, Town Council 10471 11 1 3 1
United States President And Vice President 888019 1789 657 733 535
United States United States Representative District 27 22145 21 1 2 1
United States United States Representative District 31 326825 519 151 108 91
United States United States Representative District 35 205562 256 45 37 35
United States United States Representative District 39 37983 32 7 6 6
United States United States Representative District 8 295504 961 453 580 402
United States United States Senator 888019 1789 657 733 535
Upland Unified School District Member, Governing Board 40241 42 7 6 4
Victor Elementary School District Member, Governing Board 38390 43 8 9 8
Victor Valley Community College District Member, Governing Board 166428 304 112 133 93
Victor Valley Union High School District Member, Governing Board 60969 112 41 52 33
Yucaipa Valley Water District Member, Board of Directors Division 1 6331 7 0 1 0