From the LA Times:

- Up to 20% of the votes could remain uncounted on election day, according to Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

- 700,000 more Californians are registered to vote now than before the 2004 presidential primary. Included in that total were more than 244,000 voters who signed up in the 45 days before the Jan. 22 registration deadline. (The recent registrants included more than 150,000 Democrats, compared with almost 40,000 Republicans.)

- About half of the ballots are expected to be cast either by mail or by voters who drop off mail-in ballots at precincts. Those ballots can take longer to tally because elections officials are required to check signatures against the registration file. State law allows officials to tabulate those ballots beginning one week before the election, and the totals are the first results released on election night.

But when the polls close, officials turn to counting the precinct votes, leaving the rest of the mail-in ballots and the laborious checking process until after the traditional votes are counted.

This is bad news for junkies like me who want our fix on election night!