Playing the waiting game in California: From the Politics Desk

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Welcome to another big primary night! Steve Kornacki explains why we may need to practice patience with the results in California, which is hosting major contests for governor, House and mayor. Plus, we report on President Donald Trump’s new director of national intelligence.

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— Adam Wollner

Playing the waiting game in California

Analysis by Steve Kornacki

Within minutes of polls closing in California at 11 p.m. ET tonight, an avalanche of vote returns will ensue and the basic contour of each race will become clear. Then, about 90 minutes later, the avalanche will abate with millions of ballots still uncounted, and any contest not yet called could remain unresolved for days or even weeks.

That’s often the way it goes in the nation’s biggest state, which also happens to be the slowest when it comes to reporting its election results.

Consider the timeline in 2024. Just six minutes after polls closed, Orange County reported more than 700,000 votes — mail-in ballots that had been received and processed before Election Day. This amounted to half of all the votes cast in the county. Over the next 45 minutes, just about all of the state’s counties followed suit, releasing giant chunks of vote from pre-processed mail-in ballots. Within 90 minutes, many of these counties had also reported results from in-person votes cast during the early voting period or on Election Day.

All told, about half of California’s total vote had been reported by 12:30 a.m. ET. But then the long wait began. In the overnight and morning hours, counting continued in some counties and a small number of additional votes trickled in, bringing the total close to 60% by midday Wednesday. It wasn’t until Nov. 18, two weeks after Election Day, that California hit the 95% mark of the reported vote.

Of course, this didn’t matter for the outcome of the presidential race, where that first giant batch from Orange County was enough to affirm what everyone expected going in: that Kamala Harris would easily carry the state over Donald Trump. But it did delay and complicate a tabulation of the national popular vote, where there was suspense over whether Trump would break the 50% mark (he finished with 49.8%).

And when it came to the state’s truly competitive races, a series of battleground House contests, it kept the country waiting for weeks, with races in the 22nd and 27th districts not settled until a week after the election and the 13th District not called for more than a month.

The reason for these long wait times is the state’s heavy reliance on mail-in voting, rules that allow for ballots that are received up until a week after Election Day, and generally slow processing times in many population-rich counties. It’s a dynamic that has attracted plenty of scrutiny and criticism, but no meaningful change. And it means that the key races in today’s primary will likely be cliff-hangers.

That includes the gubernatorial race, in which candidates from all parties run on the same ballot, with the top two advancing to the general election. Polls show only slight separation between the top three contenders — Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton — and plenty of volatility behind them. With so many votes to be counted, clarity tonight could be elusive.

It’s the same story in the closely watched race for Los Angeles mayor, with incumbent Karen Bass and challengers Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman closely bunched in polling. The top two finishers in that contest will advance to a November runoff, assuming no candidate clears the 50% threshold in the all-party primary.

And there’s the potential for several crowded congressional primaries also to be unresolved for a while. So when the votes start pouring in tonight in California, just remember: If it’s not clear quickly who the winners and losers are, it might be a very long wait.

🗳️More on primary night: Aside from California, voters in Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota also headed to the polls today. Here’s what you need to know →

🎥 Tune in to the Kornacki Cam at 8 p.m. ET to watch Steve break down all the results.

Housing official who targeted Trump’s enemies is named director of intelligence

By Dan De Luce, Rebecca Shabad and Ryan J. Reilly

President Donald Trump named an ally with no background in intelligence to oversee the nation’s spy agencies, taking the helm as the U.S. remains at war with Iran after a fresh round of peace talks stalled.

Bill Pulte is the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and in that position, he has helped the Trump administration compile information to fuel investigations into the president’s perceived political enemies.

As acting director of national intelligence, Pulte will be the highest-ranking intelligence official, overseeing a vast network of 18 agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency. He will also be the president’s principal adviser on intelligence issues and will manage the daily intelligence briefing for the president.

Trump announced on social media that Pulte will remain as director of the housing finance agency, as well as chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-sponsored enterprises created by Congress to support the mortgage market.

The director of national intelligence post was created after 9/11 and is a Cabinet-level role that requires Senate confirmation, but naming Pulte in an acting capacity allows the president to bypass that process for now. It was not immediately clear if Pulte will be Trump’s permanent pick for the job.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed the decision, saying in a statement that Pulte was not only unqualified, but that he was chosen “precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said: “Trying to get more information about the current state of their thinking about that position, and again, if he’s somebody that wants that position permanently, he’s got, as you all know, a lengthy road ahead of him.”

Read more →

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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