After the 15th day following the 2024 U.S. election day, the total number of votes counted in all 58 counties of California as of November 20th divided by the registered voter population (voter turnout rate) has reached 69.7%, compared to only 35% during the primary election. In the general election, the registered voters in California are close to 22.6 million, increasing by 518,000 compared to the primary election in March.
Los Angeles has seen an increase of over 90,000 voters since the primary, with a total registered voter count exceeding 5.74 million, representing 25.4% of the total voters in California, equivalent to the total number of registered voters in 45 smaller counties combined. Essentially, the outcome of California’s 10 ballot propositions can be understood by observing the counting process in Los Angeles County.
There are five counties in California with over a million registered voters each: San Diego County exceeds 1.98 million, an increase of over 50,000 since the primary; Orange County exceeds 1.86 million, an increase of 43,000; Riverside County exceeds 1.37 million, an increase of 45,000; San Bernardino County exceeds 1.19 million, an increase of 31,000; and Santa Clara County exceeds 1.04 million, an increase of 24,000.
During the general election in California, only two small counties had voter turnout rates below 50%, while 8 counties (with voter populations less than 310,000) had voter turnout rates exceeding 80%. 30 counties, including San Diego, Orange, Ventura, Santa Clara, Sacramento, and San Francisco counties, had voter turnout rates exceeding 70%. This includes 16 counties such as Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino which had voter turnout rates exceeding 60%.
As of November 20th, Kamala Harris was leading in her home state with 58.7% of the vote. Out of 58 counties, 27 supported Harris (mainly coastal populous counties like Los Angeles and San Diego), while 31 counties supported Donald Trump. Nationwide, Harris secured 226 electoral votes, while Trump gained 312, making her the winner of the 47th U.S. presidential election.
Democratic candidate Adam Schiff won over Republican candidate Steve Garvey in both the 6-year term and partial term elections with 59% and 57.2% of the votes, respectively.
By November 20th, the Democratic Party had secured 41 out of 52 seats in California (flipping one Republican seat), while the Republicans retained 9 seats. The results for the original seats in the 45th and 13th districts were still pending.
Republican Representative Michelle Steel, who won in 2020, was leading her Democratic opponent Derek Tran with 54.9% during the primary election this year. However, as of the 20th, Tran was ahead by 397 votes. In Orange County, 274,000 votes were counted, with Steel leading by 3,804 votes, while in Los Angeles County, she was behind by 4,201 votes.
The day after the election, Steel was leading by 10,136 votes, but by the 15th day, her lead had shrunk to only 58 votes across both counties—Los Angeles County alone had yet to count 23,000 mail-in ballots and 56,400 provisional ballots. By the 18th, Tran had taken a 102-vote lead, with 43,000 outstanding provisional ballots in Los Angeles County (requiring verification of voter eligibility or awaiting voter responses for signature verification). Since the 2020 congressional district redistricting, the 45th district includes 9 cities in Orange County and parts of 3 other cities, as well as 3 cities in Los Angeles County and parts of Lakewood city, forming a shape resembling a hollow, uneven, slanted “C.”
In the 13th district, incumbent Republican John Duarte was facing a similar situation, leading his Democratic challenger Adam Gray by only 351 votes as mail-in ballots were being included. The district includes all areas of Merced County and most areas of Madera County, as well as parts of Stanislaus, Fresno, and San Joaquin counties. The voter turnout rates in these five counties were 62.4%, 70.6%, 66.3%, 61.6%, and 65.9% respectively.
Republican Representative Mike Garcia, who won the 27th district in 2020, acknowledged defeat on November 11th, despite leading the Democratic candidate George Whitesides with 54.9% during the primary. Whitesides gained 62.1% of the vote in the 23,000 ballots counted in Los Angeles County on the 9th and 10th, which flipped Garcia’s lead of 973 votes to a deficit of 4,730 votes. Another 16,000 votes counted on the 11th and 12th increased Whitesides’ lead to 7,606 votes. From the 13th to the 20th, Los Angeles County counted an additional 6,027 votes, with Whitesides obtaining 52.8% of the vote, leading by a total of 7,943 votes.
Out of the 41 Democratic members of Congress in California, 6 are newcomers, including Whitesides in the 27th district. In the 12th district, Lateefah Simon is a civil rights and social justice advocate and organizer, an African American and legally blind. She was elected to the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board in 2016 and appointed by then Governor Jerry Brown to the California State University Board of Trustees. Her financial support includes contributions from Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings’s spouse Patricia Quillin, who is a Democratic Party major donor. The MeadowFund foundation set up by Quillin aims to provide grants to “leaders and organizations committed to ending our nation’s racialized prison system.” Simon was appointed as a senior policing reform advisor by Governor Newsom in 2020.
Simon earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Mills College in 2017 and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco. In her teens, she was on probation for burglary until she volunteered at the Young Women’s Development Center, eventually becoming the executive director. During Vice President Harris’s tenure as San Francisco district attorney, Simon founded and led the “Back on Track” program aimed at rehabilitating young people convicted of low-level drug sales.
Sam Liccardo of the 16th district served as San Jose city council member from 2007 to 2014, mayor from 2015 to 2023, and a federal prosecutor in Southern California. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and Georgetown University. He aims to address high living costs, homelessness and housing issues, and crime in Congress. During his mayoral term, he converted motels into shelters for the homeless in California, employing them for city cleaning in exchange for accommodation and payment. Despite losing hundreds of officers, he helped rebuild the police department, hiring 200 officers in four years. Major tech companies such as Google, Adobe, Amazon, and Apple expanded their campuses in the city. He also advocated for the nation’s first legislation requiring gun owners to pay an annual fee for violence prevention and purchase liability insurance, along with pushing for 95% of the city’s power to come from clean energy sources.
Laura Friedman of the 30th district has been serving as a California state assemblywoman since 2016, previously a Glendale city council member from 2009 to 2016 and mayor in 2011-2012. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester, she worked as Vice President of Development for Rysher Entertainment from 1994 to 1997, producing movies like “It Takes Two” and “Foxfire.” Since 2000, she has owned and managed an online art glass dealership.
Gil Cisneros of the 31st district served as a U.S. Congressman for the 39th district from 2019 to 2021; He then became the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in the Biden Administration from 2021 to 2023, advocating for abortion rights and gun safety reforms. Cisneros served in the U.S. Navy for 10 years from 1994 to 2004, then worked as a logistics manager and started a foundation after winning a $2.66 billion Powerball jackpot with his wife in 2010, turning into philanthropists. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from George Washington University, an MBA from Regis University, and a master’s in urban education policy from Brown University.
In the 47th district, Dave Min, a Korean American, was elected as the California State Senator for the 37th district in 2020. He successfully proposed bills to ban gun shows in Orange County and to prevent requiring voter identification in local elections, both passing in the state assembly. Min had previously served as an assistant law professor at UC Irvine. He received his bachelor’s degree from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Arts and Sciences, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. In 2023, he was arrested for DUI in Sacramento and did not contest, with a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit, leading to a three-year informal probation. ◇