Politics
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- Today is Super Tuesday, when 16 different Democratic party primaries and caucuses happen on the same day.
- California is holding its primary today, with polls closing at 8 p.m. Pacific Time and 11 p.m. ET.
- We'll have up-to-the-minute live vote counts and results happening in real-time updating automatically.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Polls close at 8 p.m. local time and 11 p.m. ET in California.
California Democratic primary results:
Catch up on live coverage from the primary:
While you wait for California results to come in, head over to our main Super Tuesday post to follow all the action.
Pre-primary:
- Everything you need to know about Super Tuesday on March 3, the biggest day in the Democratic primaries
- The more Democratic voters have gotten to know Mike Bloomberg, the less they like him
- Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg endorsing Joe Biden is absolutely devastating news for Elizabeth Warren
- 9 mind-blowing facts that show just how much richer Mike Bloomberg is than the other presidential candidates
- 'We made history': Pete Buttigieg drops out of the 2020 presidential race
- Joe Biden crushed the South Carolina primary
Here's how Democrats will elect their presidential nominee over the next several months
What's at stake in the primary?
California is the biggest delegate prize of both Super Tuesday and the entire Democratic primary process, allocating a total of 415 pledged delegates, which is over 10% of the total number of delegates.
About one-third of California's pledged delegates are allocated at the state level, with the other two-thirds allocated by California's 53 congressional districts.
Like in most other states, candidates must earn over the minimum threshold of 15% of the vote in a given district or statewide to earn any delegates.
Ruobing Su/Business Insider
While the polls close at 8 p.m. local time, we may not have final results for several days or even weeks due to some of California's unique election procedures.
California heavily relies on vote-by-mail to make participating in elections more accessible. As NPR noted, 60% of California voted by mail in the 2018 midterms, a far larger proportion than in most states.
But mailed-in ballots are accepted until up to three days after the day of an election as long as they are postmarked by election day. In 2018, it took days in some cases for officials to fully process all absentee and mail-in ballots.
While the state also allows same-day voter registration, people who register on the day of the election cast provisional ballots which are not fully counted and processed until election officials can verify the details of their voter registration.
Who does the polling say is ahead?
According to FiveThirtyEight's' average of the latest polling data, Sen. Bernie Sanders currently leads the polls in California by a wide margin with an average of 34% support compared to 18% for former VP Joe Biden, 15% for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 13% for former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and 4.6% for Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
According to FiveThirtyEight's primary election forecast, Sanders is projected to win an average of 186 delegates compared to 125 for Biden, and currently holds an 11 in 12 chance of winning the most delegates. Warren and Bloomberg are currently projected to win an average of 61 and 42 pledged delegates, respectively.