Excerpt:

Once the final ballots are mailed-in, placed in a drop box or cast-in person for California’s June 7 primary, the attention will turn to the election results. 

But how quickly will those be made public? And will they tell us the outcome of the races right away? 

Election officials and experts say the results will arrive in three separate waves, with the first being released shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m. on June 7. 

The first wave will consist of results from the early-arriving vote-by-mail ballots, likely the ones that arrived a few days before the election, said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation.

To get those ballots ready, county election officials will have verified signatures on their envelopes and prepped them to be counted by high-speed scanning machines, she said. That allows counties to disseminate these early, partial results within minutes or seconds. 

“People who go to the Secretary of State's website and are looking for election results right at 8:01 p.m., there will be some counties that will have results showing right at that time,” Alexander explained.

In Sacramento County, voters are invited to visit the registrar's office at 7000 65th Street where they can takeh a tour and observe how the vote counting process works, according to registrar of voters Janna Haynes. The county suggests you schedule your visit, which you can do on the county elections website.

“We now have a livestream set up in our tabulation room where people can view the tabulation room and watch the ballots actually being processed and counted," Haynes said. "And I think not only does that help with our security purposes, but it helps with the transparency, and I know that’s a really important issue for some people right now.” (Full lStory)