It’s finally here. The highly anticipated elections where voters across the U.S. will decide on a number of candidates, including who will be the president. In the city of San Diego, voters have their own contested races to watch, including the mayor’s race.

Although voters finally have their chance to mark their ballots, it may be days or weeks before clear winners are declared in all the races. 

IVN San Diego caught up with Michael Vu, the registrar for San Diego County, to find out what we can expect on Election Day.

First, San Diego County residents can expect more than 4,600 poll workers across the region to work around the clock to securely count each and every vote by the certification deadline of Dec. 3. Each locality has a different deadline to certify the elections — you can see the deadlines by state on Ballotpedia.org. 

Vu, himself, expects to work all night on Election Night.

“I always expect the unexpected as each election throws certain curve balls that we need to manage,” he said. “The Registrar of Voters team has been pulling many late and weekend hours for months now in preparation.” 

As of Sunday, the Registrar reported receiving more than 1.1 million mail-in ballots. At the national level, more than 93 million ballots have been returned, according to the U.S. Election Project, which tracks early voting and is led by Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida. 

In San Diego County, Vu said poll workers have already begun scanning the ballots that have been returned with the first round of results reported at 8 p.m. when the polls close. 

It’s still too early to tell how many votes will be tabulated by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Vu said but added: “We’ll try to get many of these into the first report out that can get through our verification process.”

For those who will head to the polls on Election Day, Vu said to be prepared. He recommends marking your sample ballots before heading out. You’ll also have to wear a mask and be prepared to socially distance.

Finally, Vu asked voters to practice one trait on Election Day: Patience. 

The majority of votes in San Diego County will be counted by the end of Election Night, but it may be days or weeks before we see the final results across the country.

For more elections coverage, check out IVN San Diego’s Election 2020 page.