Early voting in California has already smashed records, and the final tallies in this election could set another.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla told KCBS Radio's "The State Of California" he doesn’t make official predictions about turnout, but he would admit: "I can tell you it’s going to be huge and it may very well set a record for the number of ballots cast."
The previous record was 14.6 million votes, set in 2016. Padilla said California could break the 15 million mark this election. Twelve million ballots had already been cast as of Monday afternoon.
Similar record breaking turnouts are expected across the country.
He expects 80% of the final vote to come in by mail, and as those ballots are usually counted first, Election Night’s first set of returns could be massive.
"We still anticipate some of the first reports - very much partial - around 8:15, 8:30. But be prepared to see more ballots accounted for in those early reports, because we’ve afforded counties the ability to start processing those ballots earlier than in previous years," he explained.
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Historically the first returns favor Republicans who are more likely to vote early while Democrats vote in person on Election Day. But that pattern has been flipped this year, which means those returns could favor Democrats.
But with so many ballots pouring in, it is likely that we will not know the results of close races on Election Night.
"We won’t have final-final numbers on Election Night," said Padilla. "We never do in California. We’ll have a pretty good sense for the outcome of most contests, but for final numbers and the outcome of close races, it’s gonna take a couple of weeks. That’s not new."
Joe Biden is likely to crush President Donald Trump in California, possibly by a record margin. But the result of the presidential race in swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan could take days.
Padilla has been in constant contact with his counterparts in those states, where they do not have the same level of experience handling a high volume of absentee ballots.
"If it takes us a few more days to get a clearer picture in those battleground states, it’s not the time to panic," he said. "It’s time to be patient. It’s the process at work and it’s a very transparent one that we’d rather get it right than get it fast. And we’ll know who the ultimate winner’s going to be plenty before the electoral college in December and before the reconvening of Congress in January."