It’s been nearly a week since Election Day, and the California governor’s race is still undecided, with millions of votes left to count. Here’s where the California governor primary results stand as of Sunday:<\/p>\n
Who is leading the California governor’s primary?<\/p>\n
In California, the two highest vote-getters in the primary, regardless of party, advance to the final November ballot. On Friday, Democrat Xavier Becerra officially advanced<\/a> in the California governor’s primary. The former state attorney general’s competition is still in flux, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n As of Sunday morning, conservative commentator Steve Hilton holds the lead for second place over billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer. Hilton was the top choice for 26.1% of voters, with 1,763,414 total votes, and Steyer has 1,439,865, or 21.3% of the vote.\u00a0No other candidate is anywhere close to the three leaders. Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has about 724,000 votes so far, and former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter<\/a> is in fifth with just 301,000 votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you’re curious how each county has voted so far, check out our interactive map of the governor’s race results<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n How many more votes are left to be counted?<\/p>\n According to the California Secretary of State’s office, there are approximately\u00a03 million unprocessed ballots<\/a> as of Saturday evening. Over 6.3 million ballots have been counted. Overall, 19,788 of 19,788 precincts are at least partially reporting results. Updated vote totals normally drop in the evenings.\u00a0<\/p>\n California’s election results must be certified by July 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why does California take so long to count votes?<\/p>\n The Secretary of State’s office explains on its site that there are a few reasons why Californians often wait days or weeks for the full results. Mail-in ballots that are received within a week of Election Day need processing, which means some ballots still in the mail system may need counting. Once a ballot is received, the Secretary of State says “elections officials must confirm each voter’s registration status, verify each voter’s signature on the vote-by-mail envelope, and ensure each person did not vote elsewhere in the same election before the ballot can be counted.”<\/p>\n That’s no small feat for a state as large as California, which has about as many residents as the entire population of Canada. Nonetheless, both Republicans and Democrats agree the process should be speedier. On Friday, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office told SFGATE<\/a> that Newsom “wishes the vote count moved faster, too.”<\/p>\n Hilton has used the glacial pace as a campaign issue, calling California<\/a> “the laughing stock of America when it comes to counting votes” and demanding Newsom free up budget to hire workers to speed up the counting.<\/p>\n More News<\/p>\n – Calif. sisters arrested after mother found dead in pullout couch<\/a> Sign up for\u00a0daily SFGATE breaking news alerts here.<\/a><\/p>\n
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