California unlikely to have fast answers on governor’s race

California’s unpredictable governor’s race might not show a clear winner as soon as people want. Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state official who oversees elections, said the governor’s race primary is likely not going to be decided Tuesday night.

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“Probably not given the fact that we have to deal with vote-by-mail ballots coming in that night,” Weber said in a Friday interview with KCRA-TV. She continued that that race “may be so diverse and so wide apart that oftentimes we do have the results of elected officials and others when they have truly a slam dunk kind of election as we saw with Prop. 50.”

Weber said “it is possible” for the election to be called Tuesday night, but she said voters shouldn’t hold their breath. “We’ve got 60 candidates. That in itself is historic,” she said.

While there are more than 60 candidates on the ballot, there are eight major candidates for governor. The latest poll in the race, published Saturday by Emerson College, indicates that it is a three-way competition between Democrat Xavier Becerra, the former state attorney general and health secretary in the Biden administration; Democrat Tom Steyer, a billionaire former 2020 presidential candidate; and Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host. 

The poll of 1,000 likely voters found 28% of respondents favored Becerra, while 22% supported Steyer, and another 21% were behind Hilton.

Other major Democrats on the ballot include former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The other major Republican on the ballot is Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Weber said before the weekend if voters were able to get their ballots in well before Election Day, it would expedite the counting process. But only about 15% of voters have mailed in their ballots already as of Monday, according to Political Data Tracker.

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“We’ll be as fast as we can, but as accurate as we can and making sure that every vote counts,” she said. 

She also assured voters that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not be at polling sites, quelling public fears that officers will be nearby. Still, Weber said that Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta are “prepared if something were to happen.”

“We’ve done our part. We hope it will be a boring election like other elections where there’s nothing that really happens that’s crazy but that it will be exciting because a lot of people will show up,” she said.