The San Francisco Department of Elections Schedules Selection of Ballots for Manual Tally for the November 4, 2025, Statewide Special Election

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

For Immediate Release
SAN FRANCISCO, Friday, November 14, 2025 – On Wednesday, November 19 at 9 a.m., the Department of Elections will conduct the random selection of ballots cast in the November 4, 2025, election for the 1% manual tally. Using ten-sided dice, the Department will randomly select 1% of San Francisco precincts, as well as 1% of vote-by-mail and provisional ballot batches, for this required post-election audit.

The 1% manual tally is a public process conducted to confirm that the voting equipment accurately tabulated ballots and correctly reported results.

The selection process will be open to public observation in person at the Department’s office in City Hall, Room 48, and via live stream and recording at sfelections.gov/observe.

Given that San Francisco had 100 polling places in the November 4 election, members of the public will randomly select ballots cast in one precinct for inclusion in the manual tally. Members of the public will then randomly select batches of vote-by-mail and provisional ballots equal to 1% of the total number of batches processed, which will include ballots from multiple precincts.

Once the selection is complete, Department staff will gather the chosen ballots. The manual tally will begin on Thursday, November 20 at 8:30 a.m., and will also be open to public observation both in person in City Hall, Room 48 and via live stream at sfelections.gov/observe.

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