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In Los Angeles, election officials have already received 2.1 million ballots. In Orange County, the figure is nearing 750,000. And across the United States, more than 80 million ballots have been cast. 

Do the sky-high early voting numbers mean we'll see record turnout in 2020?

They're certainly a good sign, experts say. But thanks to California's voter-friendly laws, it takes weeks to tally every ballot, and that means we may not know the precise turnout figures until after Thanksgiving.

Millions of ballots have already arrived at counting centers, but election officials still have to process them. That involves checking signatures, tallying write-in votes and inspecting damaged ballots.

Other votes will arrive on election night. In Los Angeles, some are transported to counting centers by sheriff's deputies in helicopters and on boats.

Young voters in California are more likely than older voters to have their vote-by-mail ballots rejected, a September study found.

The study, which was published by the California Voter Foundation, examined trends in rejected ballots across the state. Over the last decade, election officials rejected 1.7% of vote-by-mail ballots cast in statewide elections, according to the study. However, voters between the ages of 18 and 24 had their vote-by-mail ballots rejected at about three times the rate of older voters in the three counties studied, said Kim Alexander, president and founder of the California Voter Foundation.

Young voters have several factors working against them, said Alexander, who was a co-author on the study. When it comes to casting vote-by-mail ballots, young voters are more likely to be new to voting, unaccustomed to making signatures and unfamiliar with using the United States Postal Service, she added.

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In the dramatic midterm elections of 2018, when the fate of the House and Senate hung in the balance and a new governor was about to be enthroned, two of every three votes tallied in California were cast via mail-in ballots rather than by in-person voting —even in the absence of a deadly pandemic.

By-mail voting has long played a dominant role in Golden State democracy, so the ballot-in-every-mailbox experiment currently underway is not so much revolution as evolution. But understanding the particulars of what happened to mail ballots in California’s 2018 election — how many were sent to voters, how many were never returned, how many were rejected and why? — can help prepare for an unprecedented Nov. 3, when counting commences on what may well be the weirdest Election Day in American history.

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Californians have until Nov. 3 to return their mail ballots, but elections officials and experts are encouraging voters to do it sooner rather than later. 

Waiting risks mishaps that could lead to a ballot not being counted.

During the March primaries, California counties were unable to count 100,000 mail ballots, and many were rejected because they did not arrive at elections offices on time, according to county data compiled by the Secretary of State’s Office. Legislators hoping to ameliorate the problem extended the deadline for receiving ballots from three days after the election to 17 days.