As of this afternoon, 252,845 of the ballots cast by San Francisco voters in this past Tuesday’s election have been tallied, which equates to 50.5 percent of the potential 500,516 votes, as newly mapped by precinct turnout above.

But with around 124,000 vote-by-mail or provisional ballots that have yet to be processed, we’re projecting the final number of ballots to total over 370,000, which would yield a record setting mid-term turnout of around 75 percent.

In comparison, the turnout for the mid-term election in 2014 was 53 percent. The long-term average for mid-term election turnout in San Francisco is 58 percent. And the previous mid-term record, set in 1982, was 63 percent with a total of 238,991 ballots cast.

UPDATE (11/14): With 338,348 ballots having been tallied as of this morning and around 40,000 ballots remaining to be processed, the final turnout is on track to surpass 75 percent, as we projected above.

UPDATE (11/15): With 357,443 ballots having now been tallied, the latest turnout count is now over 70 percent (71.4 percent to be exact). And with around 22,000 ballots remaining to be processed, the final turnout is tracking at 75.8 percent.

UPDATE (11/20): With roughly 2,500 ballots remaining to be processed, the turnout count has hit 74 percent (74.31% to be precise, as newly mapped below) and will likely be finalized at just under 75 percent, as we projected above.

13 thoughts on “Mid-Term Election Turnout Will Be over 70 Percent in San Francisco”
  1. Never thought I’d say this, but looking at the map above, I’m proud to live in one of the reddest parts of the city!

  2. This is very misleading. It’s counting only percentage of registered voters. Of all eligible voters the turnout was only ~56%.

    Although that’s healthy, we have a lot of work to do when 44% of the electorate still isn’t participating.

  3. Could not agree more. Thanks for highlighting that key detail! Of particular note is the lack of turnout in the Bayview and Hunter’s Point where decades of neglect from City Hall has translated into lack of participation at the ballot box.

    1. Decades of neglect? Have you driven on 3rd Street in the last 5 years? The roads are like glass, smoother than any roads in San Francisco. Traffic lights and street lights are all brand new. A shiny new T line has few riders, yet cost well over a hundred million dollars. That’s one of the areas least neglected by the city, almost to the point of absurdity.

      1. Trumpeting the barely decade old T-Line and its required infrastructure improvements along Third St. was a very kind and wonderful way for you to illustrate my point. The entire southeastern part of San Francisco has been underserved by MUNI for decades — perhaps still so. And here we are getting caught up solely on access to equitable transportation which is just one piece of a much larger discussion about the complex history of that area and how it relates to voting participation.

        So no, let’s not be cute here and pretend that your example of an 11 year old infrastructure project washes away and makes up for decades worth of marginalization on so many other fronts.

    1. Not really tragedy of the commons. Just another demonstration of why poor/underserved people tend to stay that way. Sometimes the system isn’t fair, and sometimes people just won’t get off their butts and deal.

  4. UPDATE: 338,348 ballots have now been tallied, which equates to 67.6 percent of the potential 500,516 votes. And with around 40,000 ballots remaining to be processed, the final turnout is on track to surpass 75 percent, as we projected above.

  5. UPDATE: With 357,443 ballots having now been tallied, the latest turnout count is now over 70 percent (71.4 percent to be exact). And with around 22,000 ballots remaining to be processed, the final turnout is tracking at 75.8 percent.

  6. UPDATE: With roughly 2,500 ballots remaining to be processed, the turnout count has hit 74 percent (74.31% to be precise and as newly mapped above) and will likely be certified at just under 75 percent, as we projected above.

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