Inland Empire Midterm Turnout Surges

Election officials in the Inland Empire project strong voter turnout for the November 3 midterm election, with early tallies exceeding figures from the 2022 cycle.

The 2022 midterm election in San Bernardino County recorded a 28.99% turnout. By midday on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, that county had reported a 29.3% turnout with all precincts submitting data. Workers counted 366,322 total ballots, which included 282,137 mail-in votes and 84,185 in-person ballots from an estimated 1.2 million registered voters.

Riverside County reported a 23% turnout as of the same midday deadline. The Registrar of Voters counted 334,076 ballots, comprising 297,825 mailed ballots and 26,251 in-person votes. The county has approximately 1.4 million registered voters. Officials indicated that roughly 485,000 vote-by-mail ballots and 11,000 conditional voter registration ballots remained to be processed.

Jennifer Gaudette, a professor in the UC Riverside School of Public Policy, stated on Wednesday that turnout appears higher in both counties compared to four years ago. She observed a large increase in participation relative to the June primary election.

Gaudette pointed to the volume of ballots returned before Election Day as evidence that voters were more focused on ensuring their votes were counted this year than in 2022. The final totals will depend on the remaining mail-in and conditional ballots currently in the counting process.