Senate Bill 113 (Calderon), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2007, created a February 5, 2008, Presidential Primary Election. The election was limited to presidential primary candidates and any initiative measure or referendum that qualified in time for a statewide election ballot, as well as some local contests depending on where you live. The primary election on June 3 includes races for United States Congress, the California Legislature, statewide ballot measures, and — depending on where you live — some local contests. (California Constitution Article II, Sections 8 and 9)

Primary elections are held to determine which nominee in each political party will represent the party in the general election. Voters who are registered with a political party are eligible to vote only in that party's primary election and not in any other party primary election. Some political parties allow voters who are not registered with any political party — also known as "decline-to-state" voters — to vote in the party's primary. The winning candidate from each party advances to the general election and all voters, regardless of their political party registration, are allowed to vote for any candidate on that ballot.

The Democratic, Republican, and American Independent parties are allowing decline-to-state voters (voters who did not choose to affiliate with any political party) to cast ballots in their primaries on June 3.

Local elections officials are required by law to mail all decline-to-state voters who are registered as permanent vote-by-mail voters a notice and application regarding voting in the primary election. The notice must tell the voter that he or she may request a vote-by-mail ballot for a particular political party for the primary election if that party allows decline-to-state voters to vote in their primary.

Local elections officials must provide vote-by-mail and polling place voters with a nonpartisan ballot unless they ask for a ballot for a particular party's primary. The law does not specify how local elections officials are to let decline-to-state voters know they have such an option. (Elections Code sections 3205(b) and 13102)

To check your current political party registration, call your county elections office. County contact information is at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_d.htm.

You can look up your polling place at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_ppl.htm.  If you can't find your polling place, you are permitted to cast a provisional ballot at any polling place in the county in which you are registered to vote.

If your name is not on the list of registered voters at your designated polling place but you believe you are registered to vote, you may request a provisional ballot. The poll worker will give you the party ballot you request and a special envelope. After voting, place your ballot in the provisional-ballot envelope, and sign the outside affirming that you are who you say you are and you have not already voted in that election. Your provisional ballot is counted after your county elections office has confirmed that you are registered to vote, you are permitted to vote the party ballot that you voted, and you did not already vote in that election. The poll worker can give you information about how to check that your provisional ballot was counted and, if it was not counted, the reason why.

The initiative process is the power of the people to place statutes and constitutional amendments on the ballot. If the initiative proposes to amend California statutes, the proponents must gather petition signatures of registered voters equal to 5% of the total votes cast for Governor in the last gubernatorial election. If the initiative proposes to amend the California Constitution, the signature requirement is 8%.

Referendum is the power of the people to approve or reject statutes already adopted by the Legislature. However, this does not apply to statutes that have urgency clauses, call for elections, or provide for tax levies or appropriations for current expenses of the state. Voters wishing to preclude a legislatively adopted statute from taking effect must gather signatures of registered voters equal in number to 5% of the votes cast for all candidates for Governor in the previous gubernatorial election.

A "yes" vote approves and a "no" vote rejects a proposed statute or constitutional amendment placed on the ballot through the initiative process.

A "yes" vote approves a statute previously adopted by the Legislature and allows it to take effect. A "no" vote rejects the statute that had been adopted by the Legislature and precludes it from taking effect.

Arguments in favor of and against ballot measures are provided by the proponents and opponents of the ballot measures. If multiple arguments are submitted for or against a measure, first priority is given to arguments written by legislators in the case of legislative measures, and arguments written by the proponents who filed the initiative or referendum in the case of an initiative or referendum measure. Subsequent priority for all measures goes to bona fide associations of citizens and then to individual voters. The submitted argument language cannot be verified for accuracy or changed in any way unless a court orders it to be changed. (Elections Code section 9067)

County elections officials must read and tabulate write-in votes by hand. This occurs after most votes are tallied for all the candidates listed on the ballot (after the semifinal official canvass period is completed).

County elections officials must report vote totals for write-in candidates to the Secretary of State 35 days after the election. (Elections Code section 15375)

Each county elections office processes its ballots differently. Elections Code section 15151 requires county elections officials to send their initial results to the Secretary of State's office no more than two hours after they begin tallying the votes after polls close on election night. Elections offices continue to report results periodically until all precinct vote totals have been reported.

Elections Code section 15101 allows voters to cast ballots up to 29 days before Election Day, and many voters do this by voting by mail. Elections Code section 15101 allows counties to begin opening vote-by-mail ballots up to seven business days before Election Day, but those results cannot be accessed or shared with the public until the polls close at 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.

Many elections officials choose to tally and report these early voted ballots first, instead of waiting for ballots or results to come in from the individual precincts. As a result, because no full precincts have been tallied and reported, the results from these early voted ballots that are reported to the Secretary of State's website simply appear as raw vote totals because in this initial stage, they are not attributed to individual precincts.

All valid vote-by-mail ballots that county elections officials determine have been cast by eligible voters are counted and included in the official election results. County elections officials have 35 days to complete this process and send the results to the Secretary of State. This time period is often referred to as the "official canvass." (Elections Code section 15375)

Provisional ballots are those ballots cast by voters who believe they are registered to vote, but their names do not appear on the official voter registration list. Voters who believe the official voter registration list incorrectly lists their political party affiliation can also vote provisionally. Finally, voters who receive a vote-by-mail ballot but arrive at the polls requesting the opportunity to vote in person because they cannot locate their vote-by-mail ballot are asked to use a provisional ballot to ensure they do not cast two ballots. All provisional ballots that county elections officials determine have been cast by eligible voters are counted and added to the official vote tally.

County elections officials have 35 days to complete this process. This time period is often referred to as the "official canvass." (Elections Code section 15375)

There are two definitions of "close contest" for purposes of the online Election Results website. When there is less than a 2% difference between first and second place, the website will display a grey watermark behind the contest results, with the words "Close Contest." When there is less than a 0.5% difference between first and second place, the website will display a red watermark behind the contest results, with the words "Close Contest." Depending on the voting system or systems used in the county or counties where this election is conducted, local elections officials may be required to conduct a manual tally of the ballots cast in 10% of the precincts if the final result of the contest has less than a 0.5% difference between first and second place. For more details on the Secretary of State's Post-Election Manual Tally Requirements, go to http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting_systems/ttbr/post_election_req.pdf

Results will be updated after all provisional ballots and vote-by-mail ballots are tallied.  Depending on the volume of these types of ballots, it may take many more days for county elections officials to verify voter records and determine if ballots have been cast by eligible voters.  Furthermore, results may be adjusted based on the results of post-election manual tally processes, frequently referred to as post-election audit processes, that are required by law.

How often these results are updated will vary based on the size of each county and the process each local elections office uses to tally and report votes. 

Go to http://vote.sos.ca.gov/ to get updated election results any time after Election Day.

County elections officials must report their final results to the Secretary of State 35 days after Election Day, which for this election is July 8.  This time period is often referred to as the "official canvass."

The Secretary of State then has four more days to certify the results of the election which, in this case, is July 12.  (Elections Code section 15375)