The winner is? Vote by mail further prolongs results of close primary races

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, March 6. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

• Voters may have to wait a bit longer for primary results thanks to mail-in ballots
• Schiff and Garvey are headed to a November showdown
• Will 2024 give us a superbloom?
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

The winner is? Vote-by-mail further prolongs results of close primary races

Are you scrolling through your news feed this morning, hoping to find out who won — and feeling frustrated? The days of election night (and morning) results is basically over in California.

The state’s wide-scale adoption of vote-by-mail balloting has fundamentally altered how we engage in the democratic process. This shift has caused a cultural overhaul of how we should see election nights and the timeline for learning the outcomes of many races.

The Times’ Julia Wick elaborates on why you’ll have to wait a bit longer for election results.

Voting by mail slows the process

California has pushed to provide more voting options and protections, making voting more accessible than almost anywhere else in the nation, with mail-in ballots as the alternative.

When voters arrive at a voting center and cast a ballot in person, the vote center handles all the verification upfront. Once that ballot arrives for tabulation, no extra steps are necessary.

But, with mail-in voting, each ballot must undergo verification and processing before tabulation, which is much more time-consuming. The influx of hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots — some that arrive after election day — further prolongs the process of finalizing an election.

Rest assured, the slow tabulation process isn’t suspicious or nefarious. Instead, it’s a feature of a functioning democratic system. However, it also means more time-intensive work for election officials.

“The reason we take so long is we’re verifying all the ballots and making sure only valid ballots are being counted,” Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, told The Times. “So it’s a function of election security — the very election security [that] people who criticize slow vote counts are demanding.”

Additionally, vote-by-mail ballots deposited in mailboxes on or just before election day take days to arrive.

California law mandates that ballots postmarked by election day must be accepted for up to seven days, meaning officials won’t know the total number of ballots until well into next week.

A timeline of Southern California election results

With one in four California voters residing in L.A. County, millions will have participated in Tuesday’s election. Over 1.3 million mail-in ballots in L.A. county were counted in the 2022 midterm elections.

The county has implemented a prompt election night schedule for a smooth election process. Orange County’s Registrar of Voters followed a similar election night release schedule, with daily updates to follow.

8 p.m.: Voting is closed. Ballots cast at voting centers on election day traveled to a county facility in the City of Industry, where hundreds of employees processed vote-by-mail ballots before tabulation.

8:30 to 8:45 p.m.: The registrar-recorder’s office planned to release the first wave of results on election night, including only mail-in ballots received before election day.

8:45 and 9 p.m.: A second set of results was to be released, adding ballots cast in person at vote centers before election day.

After 9 p.m.: Results from ballots cast in person on election day will start being released, with updates continuing into the late-night hours.

Today and for the next two weeks, the registrar-recorder’s office said updates will be released daily between 4 and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

March 29: Election results will be certified, pending the counting of all votes and the accuracy of the final returns, said county election officials.

Here’s where you can find out where races stand

California presidential and congressional races
Find the latest returns for primary elections for Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. Results for a statewide proposition, U.S. Senate and House seats, and state Senate and Assembly contests are also available on this page.

Los Angeles County
These races include primary elections for district attorney, Los Angeles City Council and the county Board of Supervisors. Results for school boards and local measures are also available on this page.

Orange County
Election results across Orange County include county and city primary results, including those for school boards and local measures.

Today’s top stories

Mary Ann Roby, 72, of Downey, votes in the California primary election at the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder in Norwalk.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Elections and politics

• Schiff and Garvey are headed to a November showdown for coveted California Senate seat.
• Gascón and Hochman jump out to early leads in hotly contested L.A. County D.A. race.
• Newsom’s Prop 1 holds narrow lead in California primary.
• Measure HLA, an effort to create hundreds of miles of bus and bike lanes, takes commanding lead in early returns.
• Nikki Haley will suspend her campaign, but won’t immediately endorse Trump, a source says.
• Biden and Trump move closer to a November rematch after Super Tuesday victories.

Crime and courts

• A Jewish woman says a camera caught her neighbor drawing a swastika on her seltzer.
• A drug trafficker killed and buried two witnesses to silence them, feds allege. One was 6 months pregnant.
• A California man is the first in the U.S. to be charged with smuggling greenhouse gases.

Climate and environment

• Plant a tree, get $100 under new MWD program aimed at expanding SoCal’s tree canopy.
• The Arctic Ocean could be ‘ice-free’ within the decade, researchers warn.
• Risks ease for Colorado River reservoirs after wet winter, but long-term challenges loom.

Celebrities

• Kate Middleton was spotted after rampant speculation about her post-op whereabouts.
• Sinbad had a stroke four years ago. In his Instagram return, he says ‘miracles happen.’
• Jamie Foxx says he’ll talk about his health scare in stand-up bit ‘What Had Happened Was.’

More big stories

• Daylight saving time is coming Sunday. Get ready.
• Free COVID-19 tests are still available by mail — until Friday.
• A top LAPD oversight official may leave one troubled police department for another.
• Oscars 2024: Final predictions for all 23 categories.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Commentary and opinions

• Anita Chabria: In 2024, it’s an election between authoritarianism and the uncommitted.
• Editorial: Release the anti-camping law report now. L.A. needs to see the data.
• Michael Hiltzik: A Trump judge slaps down Big Pharma’s attack on Biden’s drug price cuts.

Today’s great reads

(Photos courtesy of David Cassirer, U.S. District Court Central District of California, Manu Fernandez / Associated Press; photo illustration by Jim Cooke / Los Angeles Times)

A Jewish family, a famous European museum and the battle for a Nazi-looted masterpiece. A Jewish family’s quest to reclaim a masterpiece painting stolen by the Nazis takes them across oceans and continents, into courts and back through time.

Other great reads

• How some very spicy noodles saved the company that pioneered Korean ramen.
• Ready to build or rent out an ADU? Here’s how to win over nervous neighbors.
• How Netflix survived the streaming wars to stay the subscription video king.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your downtime

The Carrizo Plain superbloom on April 16, 2017.

(Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🌺 Will 2024 give us a superbloom — and where to see wildflowers now.
• 🎻 L.A. Phil’s 2024-25 lineup (Dudamel’s penultimate season) includes Mahler, a Seoul Festival and more John Williams.

Staying in

• 💿 Norah Jones on her surprising new album — out Friday — and the old song that’s almost ‘too sad’ to play.
• 🥨 Here’s a recipe for pretzel buns.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

And finally ... a great photo

Show us your favorite place in California! We’re running low on submissions. Send us photos that scream California and we may feature them in an edition of Essential California.

Borrego Springs

(Amy Brewster)

Today’s great photo is from Amy Brewster of Salinas: Borrego Springs. Amy writes: “Borrego Springs is a small town surrounded by the largest state park in California, Anza-Borrego State Park.”

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Anthony De Leon, reporting fellow
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor

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