L.A. County has some 150,000 ballots left to count from Tuesday vote

Los Angeles County has almost 150,000 ballots left to count from Tuesday’s election, county Registrar-Recorder Dean C. Logan said Wednesday.

Of those, 40,671 are provisional ballots that must be checked for validity before being tallied. An additional 67,444 are mail ballots that were dropped off at the polls, and the remaining 40,618 were received through the mail shortly before the election.

The county has until July 4 to finish counting those ballots, along with votes received by certified write-in candidates.

Outstanding ballots can change election night outcomes in close contests such as this spring’s races for state controller and for an Inland Empire congressional seat.

California counties have 28 days from the date of an election to process their outstanding ballots before certifying election results and reporting them to the secretary of state.

Every valid ballot is counted, election officials say, regardless of whether a race appears to have been decided on the basis on election night returns.

Los Angeles County will post periodic updates on its website, lavote.net, until its counting is finished.