California’s elections are never quite over on Election Day, and this year is no different. The state’s big population and its universal vote-by-mail system add to the time it takes to count the large volume of ballots counties will receive.

Follow live updates, analysis and highlights from 2026 election day's key races, such as California governor, Los Angeles mayor, L.A. City Council and more.

As the vote-count totals crawl across Los Angeles and California, The California Post visited the county’s 144,000-square-foot ballot processing facility Thursday, which showed dozens of empty work stations.

California is notorious for a drawn-out vote count, as local election officials work through millions of mail ballots, some of which don’t even arrive until after Election Day. It could be days still before the race is resolved.