Live Election Day updates: Early voter turnout up compared to last midterm election
By By CalMatters Staff, CalMatters ·
Who will replace Gov. Gavin Newsom? Will Californians impose a wealth tax on billionaires? And which party will control Congress in the final two years of President Donald Trump’s second term? We’ll start to find out tonight.
CalMatters journalists are covering the election in every corner of the state and we’ll post live updates here. Reporters Marisa Kendall in Oakland and Nigel Duara in Los Angeles will anchor our coverage. If you haven’t voted yet, don’t forget our Voter Guide. Thank you for joining us!
11:36 am
Early voter turnout up compared to last midterm election
Nearly a third of California ballots have been cast, according to voter data firm Political Data Inc. As of 11:15 a.m., 31% of ballots were returned. That’s about 7 million ballots returned, out of about 23 million total ballots.
That’s up slightly from the 2022 midterm election, which saw 28% voter turnout at this point. Turnout from Latino voters in particular is up, with 22% of ballots returned, compared to 16% in 2022. Turnout is also up in the Inland Empire (26% compared to 19% in 2022) and in the Los Angeles area (30% compared to 27%).
Democrats are turning out in greater numbers than Republicans. They’re also turning out in greater numbers than the last election: 35% of Democratic voters have returned their ballots, compared to 29% at this point in 2022.
— Marisa Kendall
10:52 am
Poll: Two-thirds of California voters fear Trump administration will stop vote count early
About half of California voters think the federal government will interfere with voting today, and nearly two-thirds said they’re concerned the Trump administration will stop the vote before all ballots have been counted, according to a poll of more than 2,700 registered voters.
Among people registered as Democrats or who identified themselves as liberals politically, nearly six in ten were not confident that the federal government wouldn’t interfere with the vote in California, according to the latest poll from the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
But it’s after the vote where their confidence really drops.
Among registered Democrats, 85% said they were concerned the federal government might try to stop the vote count in the days after the election, before California and other states finish counting. One in five California Republicans also said they shared those concerns.
— Nigel Duara
10:16 am
Governor candidate Xavier Becerra casts his ballot in Sacramento
Xavier Becerra, who is running for California governor, and his wife, Carolina Reyes, voted this morning before a flank of TV cameras at Belle Cooledge Community Center in Sacramento.
Speaking to reporters after he voted, Becerra said he plans to stay involved with the UCLA Voting Rights Project, where he is an adviser, until “right before I am sworn” if he wins. In that role he represents some of the plaintiffs challenging the Trump administration’s so-far unsuccessful attempt to force California election officials not to count 20,000 ballots of people the administration claims aren’t citizens.
He addressed the press in both English and Spanish, telling reporters to “get used to that.”
Asked by a Spanish-language news outlet what it meant for the child of Mexican immigrants to potentially become governor, he reflected on growing up not far from the polling place, which was in Sacramento’s South Land Park neighborhood, and seeing the Capitol during visits downtown. To be close to winning that office, he said, is the “American dream, the California dream, the dream of my parents.”
“The wonderful thing about this country is that those dreams become reality,” he said.
— CalMatters reporter Jeanne Kuang
10:00 am
Federal government to deploy election monitors in LA, Alameda County, Sacramento and San Diego
The Department of Justice is sending about 1,000 election monitors and observers out in the field today, including in four California areas: Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and Alameda County, according to a DOJ news release. For the first time, federal monitors will be posted in all 50 states – making this the largest election monitoring effort in history.
“Election integrity has been one of the top priorities for this administration and this division,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice said in the release.
The monitors will be ensuring compliance with federal voting rights statutes, according to the release, including making sure people with disabilities are able to vote, and that there is no voter intimidation or suppression based on race, color, national origin or religion.
This news comes as democrats in California, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have expressed concerns about federal interference in California’s election. Newsom and the state Democratic party are sending their own election monitors to polling locations to watch for voter suppression.
— Marisa Kendall
9:29 am
9th Circuit vacates order that would have let Trump challenge CA ballots
The Trump administration can’t sequester California ballots or threaten election workers with prosecution under a federal appellate court ruling handed down Monday, in a case that saw the federal government win and then just as quickly lose.
The Service Employees International Union sued the federal government, alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act. It requested and won a restraining order last week forbidding the federal government from sequestering more ballots and threatening local election officials with prosecution.
The government challenged that restraining order, and on Monday, it won, briefly. A three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that challenging ballots was a right of the government and “core executive (branch) function.”
“At most, (the SEIU and the other plaintiffs) fear a possibility of a future prosecution,” said the appellate court order. “ If such a prosecution is ever brought, the prosecution itself supplies the means by which any defect, vindictiveness included, can be raised and remedied.”
But a second hearing among all the 9th Circuit justices vacated that decision in a terse order handed down hours later on Monday. The decision will be reheard by the full panel.
— Nigel Duara
8:19 am
As polls open, Newsom promised lawyers will be safeguarding Californians’ right to vote
Happy Election Day! If you’re looking for updates about voting and results, we’ve got you covered here all day and into this evening.
First up: In-person Election Day voting has begun. Amid worries of federal interference, Gov. Gavin Newsom has said 134 election law attorneys and 1,000 volunteer poll workers will be deployed to guard against voter intimidation and suppression. Another 54 people will be manning a hotline, run by the California Democratic Party, that voters can call to report suspicious activity at the polls: 1-877-321-VOTE.
“We’re not screwing around,” Newsom said last week on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The lawyers and poll volunteers will be in five areas: the 6th congressional district (Sacramento area), the 13th and 22nd districts (Central Valley), the 45th district (Orange and Los Angeles counties), and the 48th district (San Diego and Riverside counties), according to The Sacramento Bee.
— Marisa Kendall
This story was originally published by CalMatters and is republished under its terms.