Long Beach voters could be in for another long election night as county officials sort through ballots cast Tuesday and late-arriving mail-in ballots, which could determine the next mayor and multiple City Council seats.

When the polls close at 8 p.m. Nov. 8, it will take about 30 minutes before Los Angeles County election officials reveal their first vote counts, which will include all the vote-by-mail ballots received before Election Day. Then around 9 p.m., a second update will include ballots cast at early voting stations through Monday.

After that, election workers will have to begin the more time-consuming process of gathering and tallying ballots that were cast in person or mailed on Election Day.

Mike Sanchez, a spokesperson for the LA County Registrar/Recorder Clerk’s office, said that there will be additional updates throughout the night as ballots are delivered and processed at the county’s vote-counting facility in Downey, but early indications are that more people are voting in the November election when compared to turnout in the June primary.

“We’re hoping for a healthy surge of voters,” Sanchez said.

Mail-in ballots can be postmarked as late as 8 p.m. on Election Day, and in-person ballots are being brought in from all over LA County, so it could be hours or days before results are obvious.

In tight races, it could take multiple updates for there to be a clear winner. The first post-election night update is expected to be on Nov. 11. And they’ll continue with two updates per week until Dec. 2.

The tallies won’t be official until the county certifies them, which it anticipates doing on Dec. 5.

Close races aren’t uncommon. In 2020, the extension of Long Beach’s Measure A sales tax flipped on the final day of updates from the county and won by 16 votes.

You can follow the early returns as they come in tonight at lbpost.com/elections and tune in for live analysis on our YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.