A report released Friday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development shows the first decrease in homelessness, nationally and in California, in years.
Just one day before the election, California’s ballot return rate was at 15 percent. That’s similar to the June 2022 primary.
But if you take a closer look, Democrats have been more likely to hold onto their ballots until the last minute compared to Republicans this election.
Paul Mitchell with the voter data firm Political Data Inc. says this could largely be because Democrats were waiting for their party’s frontrunner to emerge to avoid a scenario where two Republicans make it to the general.
"These Democratic voters have been waiting to kind of like make the right choice in this governor’s race and in a way like the invisible candidate in this race is the fear that the other party’s gonna get two candidates into the runoff."
Some voters can confirm the amount of choices this election has made them fatigued. The ballot lists over 60 people running for governor.
Carissa Dodge is a Sacramento resident and voter.
"Yeah you definitely can get overwhelmed. That’s why when I was, you know for California, like all of these different people are trying to be our governor, but it’s like there’s too many cooks in the kitchen. We just need … like, and the fact that the party is allowing all of these people to run. And then, it’s just overwhelming."
Election officials will have 30 days to certify all ballots.