Reply #32: They DO NOT COUNT ANY VOTES until AFTER the POLLS CLOSE [View All]

Immediately upon the close of polls on election day, the county elections officials and the Secretary of State begin what is called the "semifinal official canvass of the vote" - the tallying of early-returned vote-by-mail ballots and the ballots cast in each of the state's 24,000+ voting precincts. The semifinal official canvass begins at 8:00 p.m. on election night and continues uninterrupted until the last precinct is counted and reported to the Secretary of State.
The vote tallying process actually begins before election night, with the vote-by-mail ballots. Any county that counts its ballots by computer (all 58 do) may begin processing vote-by-mail seven (7) days before the election. Having verified the signatures on the return envelopes, elections officials remove the voted ballots and process them through their vote tallying system. Under no circumstances may they tabulate the results until after the close of polls on election day. Most counties continue this processing until they begin their election-day preparations for counting the precinct vote. Mail ballots not counted by that time and all those received on election day, either through the mail or at the precincts, are tabulated during the official canvass of the vote.



http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_oc.htm

Under no circumstances may they tabulate the results until after the close of polls on election day.