L.A. County – Los Angeles County certified 2,227,461 ballots from the 2026 primary, completing results 24 days after polls closed despite questions about counting speed and a broader national fight over how mail ballots are treated under federal law.
On the 24th day after polls closed, Los Angeles County moved its 2026 primary results into its final, certified form—tallying 2,227,461 ballots cast.
The timing drew attention because the pace of the count has been a flashpoint before. California is known to take longer to finalize results, in part because of the state’s mail-in ballot grace period. This year. counties were required to report most ballots by June 15. with specific exceptions—including ballots that arrived within seven days of election day and ballots that needed additional verification. such as signature curing. That statutory window has helped fuel baseless claims of fraud from President Trump and others.
The federal fight over those rules is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case the court is taking up will determine whether mail-in ballots must be received by election day in order to count.
In the meantime, state and county figures show the process continuing behind the scenes rather than stopping at election night. California reported 9.4 million processed ballots. County officials estimated about five ballots remain to be counted. At the same time, 17,650 ballots were waiting to cure a missing or mismatched signature.
For Los Angeles County, the certification also came with a snapshot of a changing electorate. Turnout jumped from 28% of eligible voters in the 2022 primary to 38% this June, according to the county registrar. The share of vote-by-mail ballots dropped about 3 percentage points to 82%, pointing to an increase in in-person voting.
Statewide, early results show 41% of registered voters turned out for the June election, up from 33% in 2022, according to the secretary of state. County election officials have until July 3 to report final results to the state—giving state officials a week to certify all election outcomes.
Election officials did count more ballots than in the last time both the governor and the Los Angeles mayor were on the ballot. They also tallied those ballots faster than in 2022, a pace that had been at the center of questions this year. Even so. the Associated Press took longer to call winners. a slower pace that suggested the gubernatorial and mayoral races were more competitive.
The expected vote percentage, or EEVP, shaped those calls. The AP describes EEVP as an estimate of the total number of votes that will eventually be certified. an estimate that can change as new information arrives. In an email. AP director of election analytics Emily Swanson said. “Before counting begins in California. our estimates are primarily informed by turnout in past similar elections plus pre-election data on ballot returns. with projections based on what percentage of ballots had already been received at the same point in past elections.”.
Swanson’s team also observed a faster vote count this year than in the 2022 and 2024 primaries. In the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral races, more than half of the votes were counted by the end of election day, according to EEVP data.
County officials have pointed to infrastructure as part of the story. In January 2024, L.A. County consolidated its election operations into a new ballot processing center in the City of Industry. Dean Logan, head of the L.A. County registrar-recorder/county clerk’s office. told The Times earlier this month that the facility is open to observers and is designed for transparency. security. and efficiency. Logan said, “It doesn’t take long to count. The counting process is very fast. ” adding that “What extends the time period is those options that are provided under California law for voters — to allow everyone the opportunity to vote up until election day. and then allowing us the time to process those with the same level of security and integrity that we did the ballots that were received two weeks before the election.”.
The competition in the races was evident in the vote totals themselves. Both the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral race saw a 30% increase in votes from 2022. The governor’s race received more than 9.2 million votes compared with 7 million in 2022. The Los Angeles mayor’s race received more than 850,000 votes, an increase from nearly 650,000 in 2022.
California is still set up to finish the process in stages—county results due by July 3. then state certification a week later. And looking ahead. the vote counting process for California. Washington. Oregon. Nevada. and Alaska may change for the November midterm election depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules.
Data and graphics assistant editor Sean Greene contributed to this report.
Los Angeles County 2026 primary election ballot certification mail-in ballots signature curing U.S. Supreme Court expected vote percentage EEVP Dean Logan City of Industry ballot processing center