How to Vote in San Francisco’s November 3 Election: City Hall Hours, 37 Drop Boxes and Mail Timing

San Francisco votes on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and there are eight days left to return a ballot. Ballots went out to every registered voter in early October, and in-person voting has been open at City Hall since October 5. Here is how each way of voting works this week, according to the Department of Elections’ election page, plus the timing advice election experts are giving after problems in the June primary.

Returning a Mail Ballot

A mailed ballot counts if it is postmarked by Election Day and reaches the Department of Elections no later than seven days after November 3. If you mail it on Election Day itself, the department says to take it to a post office counter and ask for a manual postmark.

Voter advocates are telling people not to cut it that close. Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, told KPIX that voters should mail ballots at least a week before Election Day because “we are seeing mail taking a longer time to arrive,” SFist reported. A week before Election Day is Tuesday, October 27. In the June 2026 primary, California counties rejected 148,241 returned mail ballots, about 1.73 percent of those returned, and more than 93,000 of them arrived late, according to an Associated Press tally cited by SFist.

Using a Drop Box

San Francisco has 37 official ballot drop boxes, open since October 5 and through Election Day. A drop box skips the postal system entirely, and you can use any official California drop box. On November 3 you can also hand your sealed ballot in at any voting site or polling place between 7am and 8pm. The drop box map is on the Department of Elections page.

Voting in Person at City Hall

The City Hall Voting Center is on the ground floor of City Hall, in front of Room 48. Its remaining hours are:

• Weekdays through Monday, November 2: 8am to 5pm.
• Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1: 10am to 4pm.
• Election Day, Tuesday, November 3: 7am to 8pm.

City Hall is a short walk from Civic Center Station, which serves BART and the Muni Metro lines.

Election Day Polling Places

On November 3, 501 neighborhood polling places are open from 7am to 8pm. Your assigned site is printed on the back cover of your Voter Information Pamphlet, and it is also listed in the city’s Voter Portal and its Voting Site Wait Times Lookup Tool. If you go to a polling place other than your own, you can cast a provisional ballot, but it may not include every contest on your assigned ballot, the department says.

If You Haven’t Registered

The October 19 deadline to receive a ballot by mail has passed, but eligible residents can still register and vote in person at the City Hall Voting Center through November 3, or at any San Francisco polling place on Election Day. Non-citizen residents who meet the eligibility rules can register and vote in the local Board of Education contest only.

Most voters do not need to show ID. The exception is someone registering by mail for the first time who did not provide a driver license number, state ID number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. A recent utility bill, the sample ballot booklet, a passport or a student ID with name and photo all count.

If Your Ballot Envelope Arrived Torn

Many voters received ballots in ripped outer envelopes this month. Director of Elections John Arntz told Mission Local that some envelopes were damaged in U.S. Postal Service sorting equipment and that the envelope’s condition does not affect whether the ballot can be used. Check that the packet holds four ballot cards, a return envelope and an instruction insert. If those are intact, you can vote and return it as usual.

Tracking Your Ballot

The Voter Portal shows when your ballot was mailed and when it was accepted, and it flags problems such as a missing signature. The Where’s My Ballot tool sends the same updates by email, text or phone. Questions go to the Department of Elections at (415) 558-6100 or [email protected].

What’s on the Ballot and When Results Come

The ballot has state and federal races, more than 30 local candidates and 10 local measures, according to Mission Local. Two of the local measures we’ve followed are the Great Highway reversal measure, Proposition G, and Mayor Daniel Lurie’s three charter reform measures. Official ballots are printed in English plus Chinese, Spanish, Filipino or Vietnamese, with reference copies in nine more languages.

The first preliminary local results are released at 8:45pm on election night. Final local results are certified by December 3, 2026. For everything else happening in the city this month, see our guide to November 2026 in San Francisco.

Photo: Owen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.