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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 230 polling places.

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, conditional voter registration provisional ballots, mail ballots that require further signature review, and votes cast on touch screen 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.

2018 Statewide 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
City of Adelanto Member, City Council 10573 20 11 10 9
City of Loma Linda Member, City Council 10606 16 5 4 4
City of Rialto MEASURE M 39560 56 18 15 14
City of San Bernardino Mayor 84522 178 60 31 31
City of San Bernardino Member, City Council Ward 1 9117 37 18 16 16
City of San Bernardino Member, City Council Ward 2 11903 15 1 0 0
City of San Bernardino Member, City Council Ward 4 14646 38 12 4 4
County of San Bernardino Assessor/Recorder 892895 1856 683 736 541
County of San Bernardino Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector 892895 1856 683 736 541
County of San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools 892895 1856 683 736 541
County of San Bernardino District Attorney 892895 1856 683 736 541
County of San Bernardino Judge of The Superior Court Office 2 892895 1856 683 736 541
County of San Bernardino Member, Board of Supervisors District 2 195840 399 162 158 131
County of San Bernardino Member, Board of Supervisors District 4 167556 208 33 26 26
County of San Bernardino Sheriff/Coroner/Public Administrator 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California Attorney General 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California Controller 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California Governor 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California Insurance Commissioner 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California Lieutenant Governo 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 33 204947 673 312 393 275
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 36 9126 12 6 1 1
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 40 220172 429 153 136 111
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 41 54343 61 6 6 4
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 42 58645 159 62 92 53
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 47 184714 317 109 78 67
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 52 123240 170 27 24 24
State of California Member of the State Assembly District 55 37708 35 8 6 6
State of California Member, State Board of Equalization District 1 468660 1110 458 525 392
State of California Member, State Board of Equalization District 3 37708 35 8 6 6
State of California Member, State Board of Equalization District 4 386527 711 217 205 143
State of California PROPOSITION 68 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California PROPOSITION 69 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California PROPOSITION 70 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California PROPOSITION 71 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California PROPOSITION 72 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California Secretary of State 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California State Senator District 16 57544 297 138 216 129
State of California State Senator District 20 307954 487 136 102 91
State of California State Senator RECALL District 29 37708 35 8 6 6
State of California Superintendent of Public Instruction 892895 1856 683 736 541
State of California Treasurer 892895 1856 683 736 541
Town of Yucca Valley MEASURE L 10903 11 1 3 1
United States United States Representative District 27 21880 22 1 2 1
United States United States Representative District 31 323178 540 158 110 96
United States United States Representative District 35 210941 268 44 36 34
United States United States Representative District 39 38018 36 8 6 6
United States United States Representative District 8 298878 990 472 582 404
United States United States Senator 892895 1856 683 736 541