What We Know So Far About LA And OC Voter Turnout In The 2024 Primary Election

Election Day may be over, but officials are still counting thousands of ballots, and we have the latest numbers on what the voter turnout looked like.

L.A. County turnout

So far in Los Angeles County, 1,640,913 cast votes have been counted as of Tuesday, March 26. That represents a turnout of nearly 29% of eligible voters.

The turnout percentage will continue to go up — with an estimated 2,742 ballots still to be tallied in coming days. It looks like those numbers will end up close the 2022 primary, which had the L.A. mayor and California governor on the ballot and drew 1,620,592 million to the polls.

Typically, presidential election years draw larger turnouts (as you'll see in the chart below.)

Here's how that vote is breaking down so far:

• More than 1,319,000 voted by mail.
• More than 321,800 voted in person.

Turnout in recent L.A. elections

• Has your 2024 primary ballot been tallied yet? You can track the status of your ballot here.

Orange County turnout

In Orange County, where there are 1,819,334 registered voters, 685,038 ballots have been counted, with about 0 still to be tallied.

The tally so far represents 37.7% of registered voters. In the 2022 primary, turnout was about 35%, with about 636,497 of 1,809,947 registered voters casting ballots in the midterm election.

• Has your ballot been tallied yet? You can track the status of your ballot here.

Where things stand in the state

Here's the report Monday, March 11, from our colleague Lynn La in the CalMatters newsroom:

Keep in mind

As the results continue to be processed, here's what you should know about the vote tally:

Keep in mind that Tuesday, March 12, will be the final day for votes postmarked by March 5 to arrive at county elections offices, so we should know the bottom line on the vote totals soon.

Expected total turnout

Paul Mitchell, the vice president of Political Data Inc, told LAist that while turnout is looking low this election cycle, some people, such as seniors, more affluent, and more conservative voters, still hit the ballot box. Renters, minorities, and younger voters, on the other hand, may not vote as much.

"Latinos are much younger in California than the rest of the population, and so when young people turn out drops, then Latino turnout drops,” he said.

That essentially means that the population who is going to be deciding the U.S. Senate race, statewide ballot measures, local measures, and city council races does not reflect the demographics of the rest of the state, Mitchell noted.

‘Election Month’ vs. Election Day

Because of the increasing use of vote-by-mail ballots, the vote tally has gotten longer, according to the California Voter Foundation. In an analysis, the organization found:

• In November 2004, more than 80% of votes were counted within two days of Election Day, with 32.6% voting by mail. 
• In June 2022, about 50% of ballots were counted within two days of Election Day, with more than 90% of people voting by mail. 

Election officials must physically open mail-in ballots and verify signatures.

“We not only moved from ‘Election Day’ to ‘Election Month’, but we have also moved from ‘Election Night’ to ‘Ballot Counting Month,'” wrote CVF's Kim Alexander in 2022.