With a total of 443,435 ballots having been tallied since the polls closed on November 3, the total voter “turnout” in San Francisco just hit 85.10%, as mapped above, by precinct, by Election Maps SF.  And in the absolute, that’s the most votes ever cast in San Francisco, surpassing the 414,528 ballots cast in November 2016 with a turnout of 80.71%.

With an estimated 4,500 ballots left to be processed as of this morning, which includes around 2,000 provisional ballots, 500 conditional voter registration ballots, and 2,000 vote-by-mail ballots, the final turnout for this past election could hit 85.96%.

And while a relative turnout of 85.96% in San Francisco would be well above the long-term average of 54.34%, going back to 1899, this past election’s turnout won’t surpass the record relative turnout of 86.82% set in 1944, when a total of 352,409 votes were cast, and will likely just miss the relative turnout of 86.06% in 1960 when 348,290 votes were cast.

UPDATE (11/11): Accounting for a number of late arriving, but legal, ballots from voters in the military or living overseas, the turnout in San Francisco has inched up to 86.07 percent, representing the second highest turnout, on a percentage basis, on record. And with an estimated 500 ballots left to be tallied, the final turnout could inch up to 86.16 percent with a total of 448,985 ballots cast (but no higher).

12 thoughts on “Turnout in San Francisco Sets One Record, Will Miss Another”
  1. Or in other words, twice as many ballots were cast in San Francisco as in the state of Wyoming, which gets two senators and three electoral college votes. That’s democracy!

  2. No that is how a representative republic works. Maybe we should go back to teaching real civics in the USA again, instead of critical race theory, and that there are 169 genders.

      1. Serious question can you pls tell how we are close to fascism in the US?

        I mean other than Newsom’s one party rule with executive orders depriving people of their livelihoods while stripping away private property rights?

        1. A secret, unmarked gov police force pulling protesters off the streets this summer? Today, a Secretary of State mentioning a continuation of the administration who just lost the election? and alluding to a potential Electoral College “faithless elector” scheme?

          Those would be two fascist things that instantly spring to mind.

      2. I think the concern isn’t about “representative republic”, but rather how many people vote for each representative. Or how many people are represented by each representative. The lopsidedness seen today is excessive.

  3. When I was in school – which was a long time ago, but still quite a few years after the Articles of Confederation had been superseded – we were taught that a bicameral Congress was the compromise necessary to get the small states on board; kind of like how a party comprised mostly of adults ends ups up at Chuck E Cheese… to satisfy some particularly vocal member in the group and move on. It really has more to do with Political Science than “Civics”.

  4. UPDATE: Accounting for a number of late arriving, but perfectly legal, ballots from voters in the military or living overseas, the total turnout has inched up to 86.07 percent, representing the second highest turnout, on a percentage basis, on record.

    And with an estimated 500 ballots left to be tallied, the final turnout could inch up to 86.16 percent with a total of 448,985 ballots cast (but no higher).

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