Wednesday, June 03, 2026

Counting the Ballots

The Governor of California is more like a head of state. The state’s economy ranks as the fourth-largest in the world, competing with Japan’s. The state is home to everything from Hollywood to Silicon Valley.

Artificial intelligence? Headquartered here.

Shohei Ohtani? Plays here.

So when it comes to counting their votes for Governor, Californians know a lot is at stake.

As I publish this morning, 58 percent of the vote is in. Republican Steve Hilton is in the lead with 27.8 percent, closely followed by Democrat Xavier Becerra at 25.4 percent.

Democrat Tom Steyer is third with 19.6 percent.

The only other candidate in double figures is Republican Chad Bianco with 11.3 percent.

California provides universal mail-in ballots, which are valid if postmarked by Election Day and received by election officials up to seven days later.

Many, many voters take advantage of mail-in ballots. Take me, for example. I’ve lived at my current address for six years but I’ve never been to my polling place. In fact, I don’t even know where it is.

As for which two candidates will ultimately prevail, it appears that will be Hilton and Becerra. But Steyer remains close enough behind the front-runners that no one can call the race yet.

The preponderance of mail-in ballots will be Democratic, which may well carry Becerra to the top of the pack. Hilton’s strong showing probably means he will be the other candidate to move on to the November ballot.

But the math gets really difficult for Steyer. He should get a bump from the mail-ins, just like Beceera, but it is not likely that that will be enough to overtake the top two.

So that is the report at press time. I believe it will Beceera v. Hilton in November.

And that Ohtani may win this year’s National League’s Cy Young Award.

HEADLINES:

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