The Department of Elections Releases the Estimated Number of Ballots Left to Count for the September 16, 2025, Special Recall Election

For Immediate Release
SAN FRANCISCO, Wednesday, September 17, 2025 – The Department of Elections must still process and count approximately 3,500 ballots for the September 16, 2025, Special Recall Election.

This estimate includes approximately 3,400 vote-by-mail ballots received on Election Day by mail, at drop boxes, and at polling places, and 100 provisional ballots cast at polling places and the City Hall Voting Center.

Estimates of remaining ballots to count will be posted daily at sfelections.org/results along with all election results reports.

The Department has counted and reported nearly all votes from ballots received prior to Election Day. Most remaining ballots to process and count were received on Election Day from the City Hall Voting Center, official ballot drop boxes, the United States Postal Service (USPS), and polling places.

Department personnel will continue processing and counting ballots until 5 p.m. today and will maintain the same schedule, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. during weekdays and until the election is certified. Ballot processing is open to public observation in-person and via livestream at sfelections.gov/observe.

In addition to vote-by-mail ballots and provisional ballots received on Election Day, the Department will also need to process and count any vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within one week of Election Day, or by Tuesday, September 23. Since the Department has not reviewed today’s delivery of vote-by-mail ballots from the USPS prior to issuing this notice, the number of unprocessed ballots reported does not include any ballots received after Election Day that have valid postmarks on or before Election Day.

The Department will issue the next preliminary results reports at 4 p.m. on Thursday, September 18. At that time, Director John Arntz will be available to respond to questions from members of the public and the media outside of Room 48 in City Hall.

No results reports will be issued today. The reason is the Department halted the processing of vote-by-mail ballots at 3 p.m. on Monday, September 15, to facilitate in-person voting at polling places. This pause in the processing of vote-by-mail ballots allowed in-person voters to cast a regular ballot to be tabulated at a polling place, rather than having to vote a provisional ballot. The Department will resume the processing and counting of vote-by-mail ballots this afternoon, after all polling place rosters have been scanned and in-person voting histories have been reflected in voters’ records.

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