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We won't know Sacramento County vote totals until next week. Here's why.

On Election Night, the county rolled out early voting results, most of which came from mail-in ballots. So when will we see final results?

SACRAMENTO, Calif — People who live in Sacramento County will not know the final results of multiple local races and ballot measures until a week after Super Tuesday.

The reason? The county has essentially traded speed for convenience.

"We have multiple days to vote," explained Sacramento County spokesperson Janna Haynes. "You can go to any vote center, everyone gets a ballot in the mail and so, it's just going to take longer than it used to."

That's because Sacramento is a Voter’s Choice Act county. The California Voter's Choice Act was passed in 2016 in an attempt to modernize elections and provide flexibility and convenience for voters.

It allowed for easier voting for Sacramento residents, but it slowed down access to results.

This is how the process works, according to Haynes.

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"The results that came out first [Election Night] at 8:15 were everything we had received before election day," Haynes explained. "Every early voter at a vote center, everybody whose mail-in ballot we had received at a vote center, everybody who had drop boxed before election day."

After those results were counted and announced, the votes of people who had voted in person were processed next.

"Now we start to process today everybody who dropped off a ballot at a vote center or dropped off a ballot at a drop box and then the mail that we're receiving," Haynes said. "That process will continue over the next three days."

That's partly because all ballots dropped in the mail on Tuesday still need to be counted.

"We have not even seen half of the total number of ballots that we will ultimately see, which means that the election results from yesterday are not even close to final," Haynes said.

People in Sacramento County will not even get the next round of numbers until Friday at 4:00 p.m.

Haynes said typically they’d expect a 50/50 split with half of voters voting ahead of time, but she suspects this year will be a little different.

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"I think that's because we're a very vote-by-mail heavy county, and because everyone was waiting until the last minute to make sure they weren't casting a vote for someone who dropped out of the race," Haynes explained. "We have not seen half of the ballots come in, and so the results are not close to final or indicative of what the final result might be."

Haynes said overall, the result of such voting conveniences has meant a higher voter turnout. However, she admitted the actual percentage of voter participation is significantly less for primary voting.

In typical presidential primary years, the county will see about 45% voter participation. That's likely to be higher this year, Haynes said.

"We're at 20% right now with what we've processed," Haynes said. "So we're not even half way there. So going into Friday, we can probably get closer to mid-30s into 40, and hopefully by Tuesday, we'll see the bulk of our turnout."

Follow the conversation on Facebook with Mike Duffy.

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WATCH MORE: Inside the Vote Count: This is what happens to your California ballot

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