The count in California Senate District 6 remained underway Friday, with election officials still processing ballots and statewide results not yet complete. Sacramento County reported 359,994 ballots cast out of 920,998 registered voters, a 39.09% ratio, in its Friday update. Its results portal scheduled the first interim update for 4:15 p.m., saying it would include timely received vote-by-mail and provisional ballots.
As of November 6, 2026, at 5:37 p.m. Friday, the California Secretary of State’s results page listed all 546 precincts in the district as partially reporting. The page said vote-by-mail, provisional and other ballots would continue to be processed. It did not provide a total for ballots still to be counted in the district.
In the contest between Republican incumbent Roger Niello and Democratic challenger Sean Frame, Niello was ahead by 2 percentage points late Friday afternoon, according to Abridged. The Sacramento Bee reported Niello at 51% and Frame at 49%, a margin of fewer than 5,200 votes.
Why the count continues
The Secretary of State says all valid vote-by-mail ballots are counted in every California election, regardless of the outcome or how close a race is. Sacramento County’s election administration plan says that after Election Day the county continues verifying timely received ballots and conducts a manual audit and official canvass before certification. Those steps describe the general process; they do not establish how many ballots remain in this district or how the final result will change.
A separate example illustrates the canvass work without indicating what is happening to any particular ballot in the current contest: after the November 5, 2024, election, the Placer County Elections Office said it researched certain vote-by-mail, conditional voter registration and provisional ballots not counted on election night to validate eligibility. That was a different election and is context for the process, not a measure of the outstanding vote in Senate District 6.
The district includes parts of Sacramento and Placer counties, including Roseville, Folsom and Rancho Cordova, according to Niello’s district map. The Bee reported that both counties planned another results release Tuesday. Sacramento County’s portal lists updates every Tuesday and Friday until certification, which will not occur before December 1.
