As with every election since 2012, Berkeleyside has you covered for Election Day 2020.
The Berkeleyside team will be out in force on Election Day — Tuesday, Nov. 3 — visiting voting centers throughout the day, then reporting results as soon as they are available after the polls close at 8 p.m.
As we’ve done in past years, we’ll document election results in a live blog and share updates from the campaigns. Expect the live blog to launch Tuesday afternoon.
The Berkeleyside team would love to hear from readers throughout Election Day and night. What are you seeing at Berkeley voting centers? How are you watching the results? Please use the tips form to send in your thoughts, photos, videos and feedback.
As of Monday, 64% of Berkeley’s ballots — about 50,000 of them — had been received by the Alameda County registrar of voters office. In 2016, Berkeley had a 78% turnout rate, with about 65,400 ballots cast.
Election Day 2020: When will Berkeley have results?
Historically, the first round of results has come in by about 8:30 p.m. on election night. We expect that to be true again this year.
The first batch of numbers will include the bulk of the mail-in ballots the county has received, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis told Berkeleyside on Monday. County workers are scanning those in and will hit “tally” as soon as the polls close to see the results.
“We’re going to keep the scanners going as long as we possibly can,” he said, so that as many vote-by-mail ballots are included in the first set of stats.
After those numbers are released, Dupuis said, there will be more regular, frequent updates than there have been in prior years. In the past, hours sometimes passed between the first results and subsequent reports from election officials.
Dupuis said Alameda County has a new system, which it used for the first time in March, and plans to release new numbers hourly. Those updates will come from the Election Day ballots cast.
Dupuis said county workers will tally Election Day ballots into the early hours Wednesday and aim to get through all of them.
The next update won’t come until the end of the day Thursday, he said. It may include ballots people drop off at the polls on Election Day.
Alameda County ballots must be postmarked by Election Day but will continue to be counted for 17 days.
If you haven’t voted yet, visit Berkeleyside’s 2020 Election Hub to find guides to all the races and measures. Keep Berkeleyside posted about your Election Day observations by using our tips form.
