The Facts

San Francisco counted more than 90% of ballots by Saturday, November 7, just four days after Election Day. The Department of Elections reported 332,467 ballots counted, or approximately 94.3% of an estimated 352,400 total ballots.

That makes this the fastest* November general election count in a decade. GrowSF's analysis of historical results releases shows that reaching 90% took six days in 2024, seven in 2022 and 2018, and nine in 2016.

* excluding the November 2020 election, which is an outlier because most voters voted early in the pandemic

The Context

The reason for the speedup is pretty straightforward: more ballot sorting & counting machines, more staff, and overnight counting shifts.

As part of California $34 million grant to improve elections, San Francisco received a bit over $500k to implement its November Election Plan for vote-counting operations. Its equipment plan targeted bottlenecks: a third envelope sorter, a tenth envelope-opening machine, two more high-speed ballot scanners, and twice as many provisional-ballot and roster scanners (increasing from 6 to 12). The plan also called for additional staffing and the first post-election results update on Wednesday instead of Thursday.

The Department's seasonal hiring notice called for overnight ballot-processing shifts during the three to five days after Election Day.

We're excluding the November 2020 election during COVID-19, when California mailed every registered voter a ballot and San Franciscans voted unusually early. GrowSF's earlier research documents that head start: roughly 78% was already reported on election night. This year, the election-night count covered just 52.5% of the estimated total, which fits historical trends.

The GrowSF Take

We're absolutely thrilled to see a real effort to speed up the count, and for it to show results! Slow counts undermine trust, so speed is not just a nice-to-have. Close races can still require patience even with very fast counts, though.

Better equipment and well-organized staffing are sensible investments in a basic government responsibility. The Department of Elections should keep the faster post-election count as the standard for the next election, and continue to invest in more automation alongside randomized audits.