With Election Day on Nov. 5, election offices across California are hard at work. Voters have several options for casting their ballot in the Golden State. In early October, election offices began mailing out ballots to registered voters. Additionally, 29 counties also opened vote centers where residents can drop off their mail-in ballots, vote in person or register to vote and cast a ballot through the conditional voter registration process. More vote centers will open four days before the election. Counties also offer drop box options, too. Click here to find the closest early voting or vote-by-mail ballot drop-off location.On Election Day, all vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in California.But once a ballot is cast, what does the vote-counting process look like? Which ballots are counted first? The California Secretary of State's Office provides some insight into the ballot counting process on its website. Here are some answers to common questions regarding the vote-counting process in California.Who counts ballots in California?County election offices handle the printing, mailing, verifying and counting of ballots. The individual offices then report their election results to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State compiles the reports and provides the results, but does not process any ballots.When are vote-by-mail ballots counted?Some Californians who voted early may have already received a notification that their ballot was received and counted by their election office. | RELATED | How to track your ballot in the November electionCounty elections officials may begin opening and processing vote-by-mail ballot envelopes up to 29 days before Election Day, but those results cannot be accessed or shared with the public until all polls close on Election Day. Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received by county elections officials no later than seven days after Election Day must be processed. It can take election officials up to 30 days to verify voter records and determine if those ballots were cast by eligible voters.What votes are typically reported first?Early arriving vote-by-mail ballots are typically the first results seen on Election Night, then Election Day polling place ballots, then “late” arriving vote-by-mail and provisional ballots during the official canvass period, the Secretary of State's Office confirmed to KCRA 3. County elections officials must finalize their official results by 30 days after the election.The Secretary of State will certify the results 38 days after the election.Why could counting a ballot take 30 days?During those 30 days, California elections officials will process and count provisional ballots, ballots from voters who registered the same day and voted conditionally, as well as vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day. They then have to compare signatures on ballot envelopes to the signatures on file for that voter. If a signature is missing or does not match the signature on file, state law requires county elections officials to reach out to voters to verify their signature to ensure that their ballot can be counted. Voters can verify their signature up to two days before the county certifies their results.How do counties report results on Election Night?State law requires election officials to send their first batch of results to the Secretary of State's office no more than two hours after polls close on Election Day and they begin tallying votes.County election officials will continue to report results periodically throughout the night until all precinct vote totals have been reported. How are same-day voter registrations processed?California allows eligible residents to register to vote on Election Day. These voters' ballots then need to go through the voter registration verification process. Their ballot will not be counted until it is verified.What are provisional ballots and how are they counted?A provisional ballot looks like a regular ballot. However, it is placed in a special envelope prior to being placed in a ballot box because it needs to be verified. Provisional ballots are cast by voters who believe they are registered to vote, but are not on the official voter registration list at their polling place. Additionally, voters who received a ballot by mail but go to cast their ballot at a vote center without their ballot with them. In that case, if an election official is unable to verify that they have not returned their vote-by-mail ballot, they would use a provisional ballot.A provisional ballot will be counted after elections officials have confirmed that an individual is registered to vote in that county and did not already vote in an alternate way (for example, a voter cannot vote by mail and by using a provisional ballot, therefore casting two votes).Why do some elections get called early before all votes are counted?Declaring a winner in an election really comes down to a single, simple question: Can the candidate(s) trailing the leader catch up? The answers to that question are often quite complex and as varied as the many ways American states administer their elections. The AP's election team finds those answers by looking at as much data as possible.That starts with the AP vote count but also includes data collected by AP’s Election Research team on registration, advance vote, past elections and always evolving election rules, as well as the details on how and when each state releases results on election night and in the days that follow. They also pay attention to how many ballots are left to count.All of that data is fed into the AP's analytical tools. When it comes to the most important and closely contested races at the top of the ticket, all members of the decision team have to agree that a race is ready to be called.How do we know how many ballots remain to be counted?Two days after the election, counties must provide the Secretary of State with an estimate of their remaining unprocessed ballots report. The Secretary of State’s office will collate the reports, post an "unprocessed ballots report" online and provide daily updates as new estimates are provided by the county elections offices.For more information about the November election, including key issues and other races on the ballot, check out the KCRA 3 Voter Guide.Find more political news from our national team here.