After five weeks, CA knows its election results

The holidays may be coming up fast (have you finished all your gift shopping yet?) but one thing that took its time was California’s final election results. On Friday, 38 days after Election Day, Secretary of State Shirley Weber certified the results of the November election. More than 16.

1 million Californians voted, with 71% of registered voters casting ballots. And nearly 60% of all eligible voters in the state voted. Of the votes cast, roughly 81% were by mail, while 19% were in-person.



(In 2020, 43% of voters nationwide cast mail-in ballots, according to the U.S. Census.

) Compared to the last presidential election, which had an especially high voter turnout, voter turnout this year fell: In 2020, more than 17.7 million Californians voted in the election between President Joe Biden and then-incumbent Donald Trump, and the turnout rate of both registered and eligible voters were about 10 percentage points higher than in 2024. And while there were more voters this year compared to when Trump was first elected in 2016 and both of Barack Obama’s victories in 2012 and 2008, this year saw a lower turnout rate of registered voters compared to all those three elections.

That’s partly because while California added a lot more new registered voters in recent years through its automatic voter registration system, these residents may be less likely to vote regularly. Nationally, though Trump won the presidency and nabbed the popular vote, he didn’t win by the “unprecedented and powerful mandate” that he described in his victory speech, and failed to capture the majority vote. In California, where no Republican presidential candidate has won since 1988, Vice President Kamala Harris beat Trump handily, capturing over 9.

2 million votes, or 58.5%, compared to Trump’s 6 million, or 38.3%.

Harris also outperformed U.S. Sen.

Adam Schiff of Burbank, who received 9 million votes, in his race against Republican candidate Steve Garvey. But compared to Biden, who received 11.1 million votes, or 63.

5%, in 2020, Harris did not do as well. She lost vote share in all but one of the state’s 58 counties. Trump also gained a larger share of the vote in most of the state’s Latino-majority counties compared to his results in 2020.

Today, the 54 members of California’s Electoral College will gather at the state Capitol to cast their vote for Harris, which will then be certified by Congress on Jan. 6. As for the 10 ballot propositions, the anti-crime measure, Proposition 36, and Prop.

35 to make a tax on managed care health insurance plans permanent, were the most popular measures, both passing with more than 67% of the vote. Prop. 33 to expand rent control was the least popular proposal with only 40% voter approval.

Days before California’s certification, Weber said the long vote count ensures that the final results are accurate. But what’s viewed by many as a notoriously slow process – due in part to the popularity of mail-in voting – invites doubt and mistrust. Assemblymember Marc Berman, a Palo Alto Democrat and former chairperson of the Assembly Elections Committee, is introducing legislation to help counties speed up the counting process.

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