Wednesday election coverage

11:45 p.m. A Few Notable Races in San Joaquin County

 

 

The race for California's 5th Senate District between Cathleen Calgiani and Bill Berryhill (pictured) is neck and neck at this hour.

 

 

Meanwhile the race for Stockton mayor has been decided and the port city now has a new mayor.  Challenger Anthony Silva claimed victory over incumbent  Mayor Ann Johnston.

Silva says bankruptcy and a record number of homicides were too much for Mayor Johnston to overcome and voters demanded change.

 

"We have been embarrassed by bankruptcy and crime and yet Stockton residents are still willing to fight and stay here and are willing to reinvest in Stockton and restore this city," said Silva.

 

Proposition 30, the tax initiative backed by Governor Brown is trailing by 4 points as of this posting.  But Brown said on NBC last hour that he's not worried.  Listen to his comments.

 

Sacramento County Measures N, P, Q and R all have sizeable leads at this posting. Follow the results as they are updated here on the Sac County results website. And check out all of the results for races in your county by checking the links on the right-side of this page.

Republican Dan Lungren has a slim lead over Democrat Ami Bera in the U.S. House of Representatives District 7 race. With 56.1 percent of precincts reporting,  Lungren has 40,002 votes (50.3%) and Bera has 39,481 (49.7%).

 

Vote totals on our Results page are not yet displaying the results for this race.

 

Another source for updated election results is the California Secretary of State website.

 

 

 

 

Voting by mail is more popular than ever this election. In Sacramento County, nearly 60 percent of registered voters are signed up to vote that way. As of Monday, county elections officials said they'd received about half of those ballots back, which means tens of thousands of voters are turning theirs in at the polls today. Elections officials want all of those folks to know that they should NOT put those ballots in the mail.  They must drop them off at a polling place or at the County Elections office in order for them to get counted. 

The voting by mail dynamic is not only changing the way candidates campaign, but how quickly counties can count some votes.  The signatures on vote-by-mail ballot envelopes must be verified, and the envelopes must be opened. That takes additional time, so those mail ballots turned in today won't be counted until after the election.  However, those voters who voted by mail early will have their ballots counted first. When that first set of results rolls out around 8:00 p.m., those are the early mail voters.  

As more people turn their mail ballots in at the polls, the later we may have to wait to learn the outcome of tight races. This year, that could affect some Congressional races, as well as some of the propositions, particularly Governor Jerry Brown's tax measure, Prop. 30 and the measure to repeal the death penalty, Prop. 34. 

10:45 a.m.   Early activity update

 

 

 

 Listen on mobile device

 

 

Meanwhile, because of early voting in Nevada, more than 54 percent of Washoe County voters had cast their votes before election day. And in Yolo County, school board elections are helping to drive turnout.

 

 Listen on mobile device

 

10:15 a.m.  Some numbers to get you started

The California Secretary of State sent along some numbers to get us started this election day, including these:

By the Numbers: California's November 2012 Election

18,245,970 - Californians registered to vote in the November 6 presidential election

24,491 - Precincts throughout the state's 58 counties

154 - Legislative and congressional seats up for election: 20 State Senate, 80 State Assembly, 1 U.S. Senate, 53 U.S. House of Representatives (Note: There is also a special primary election in the 4^th Senate District, a seat that is scheduled for a regular election in 2014 but was vacated in September 2012.)

320 - Certified federal and state candidates on the ballot

9.1 million - Vote-by-mail ballots issued (as reported by county elections officials)

7 - Qualified political parties in California

3,820,545 - Voters registered with no political party preference (20.9% of registered voters)

7,966,422 - Voters registered with Democratic Party preference (43.7% of registered voters)

5,356,608 - Voters registered with Republican Party preference (29.4% of registered voters)

117 - Statewide initiatives approved by voters in the 100 years since direct democracy was established in California (Note: initiatives are one type of ballot measure www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_j.htm)   

88.4 percent - Highest turnout percentage of registered voters in a presidential election (in 1964)

65.5 percent - Lowest turnout percentage of registered voters in a presidential election (in 1996)

28 - Days county elections officials have to complete vote-tallying and auditing

Keep up with California election news and trivia by following @CASOSvote on Twitter.