The San Francisco Department of Elections Releases the Estimated Number of Unprocessed Ballots for the November 3, 2026, Consolidated General Election

Department of Elections
City and County of San Francisco
John Arntz, Director

For Immediate Release
SAN FRANCISCO, Wednesday, November 4, 2026 – The San Francisco Department of Elections must still process and count approximately 164,000 ballots for the November 3, 2026, Consolidated General Election.

This estimate includes approximately 154,000 vote-by-mail ballots received on Election Day by mail, at drop boxes, and at polling places, and 10,000 provisional ballots cast at polling places and the City Hall Voting Center.

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

The Department has counted and reported votes from nearly all of the ballots received prior to noon on Election Day. Most of the 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.

The Department will process ballots continuously today and through Thursday (November 5) evening. 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 no later than Tuesday, November 10.

The Department will issue the next preliminary results reports today (Wednesday, November 4) at 4 p.m. 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 upon the release of preliminary results reports.

To review statewide results, visit the California Secretary of State’s website at sos.ca.gov/elections.

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