Ballot Return Trends

Daily ballots cast colored by intensity. Pre-mailing-start days (UOCAVA) included for context.

Raw daily cast counts (muted) and a 7-day trailing moving average (bold) to smooth the weekday/weekend pulse the heatmap reveals.

Day-by-day method mix of ballots cast — shows the cycle's shift from mostly-mail early toward more in-person voting as election day approaches. Days with zero ballots cast are skipped.

As-of percentage of mail ballots mailed that have been returned by mail. Mail-only on both sides — in-person voters appear in the mail-sent denominator (every active voter gets a mail ballot in CA) but not in the numerator, so this is a mail-return-rate metric, not total turnout.