California's races ran close, not identical. No sign of an algorithm.

The post is right that five of the six party races nearly tied, within 0.2 points by our calculation. But it lists the outlier, Weber, at 64% though its screenshot shows 65.5%, and labels the court races by party.

As of the Secretary of State's 11 p.m. update on Nov. 6, Democrats had 65.3% for governor and 65.1% for lieutenant governor^1,2. They had 65.1% for controller, 65.3% for treasurer and 65.1% for attorney general^3,4,5. By our calculation from the vote counts, those five fall between 65.11% and 65.31%.

Secretary of state was the outlier, with Shirley Weber at 66.1%⁶. The post's own screenshots, from 3:46 p.m. that day, show the same pattern: the other five between 64.55% and 64.75%, by our calculation from the counts shown, and Weber at 65.5%. The post lists her at 64%.

The vote totals range from 9.74 million to 9.93 million, by our calculation^4,1. Earlier that evening, as of 5:35 p.m., about 4 million ballots were still unprocessed⁷, so every figure will move.

Supreme Court justices face yes-or-no retention votes with no party on the ballot. As of Nov. 6, Kelli Evans had 72.3% yes and Joshua Groban 71.3%.

Voters decide whether to keep each justice, "yes" or "no," and these offices are nonpartisan⁸. Evans led with 72.3% yes and Groban had 71.3%⁹. The post's own screenshot of these races shows "Yes" and "No," with Groban at 71.1%, not 72%.

Both justices worked for Democratic governors before joining the court: Groban as a senior adviser to Jerry Brown, Evans as chief deputy legal affairs secretary in Gavin Newsom's office⁸.

In 2022, all four justices on the ballot were retained with 68.0% to 70.9% yes¹⁰.

Nothing points to an algorithm. Counties hand-check the machine count, and the post had to shave Weber's figure to make the races match. This year's races are unusually close, which party-line voting and a partial count help explain.

Few voters switch parties between elections. Among 2020 presidential voters who also voted for the House in 2022, Pew found just 6% crossed party lines or voted third party. Pew adds that defections and split tickets mattered for individual Senate and governor candidates¹¹.

This year's spread is unusually tight. In 2022, six of seven partisan statewide executive races fell between 58.8% and 60.1% for Democrats, but Republican Lanhee Chen drew 44.7% for controller¹⁰. Democrat-vs-Republican races spanned about 3.5 points in 2018 and 6.3 in 2014^12,13. In Idaho's 2022 statewide races, four Republican wins fell within 2.7 points as two-party shares, but Raul Labrador won attorney general with 62.6%, at least 7 points behind¹⁴. These spans are our calculation. This year has no standout like Chen, and the count is partial. Jane Kim led a two-Democrat insurance race 53.1% to 46.9%¹⁵.

During the canvass, counties hand-count a random sample of at least 1% of precincts or ballot batches and compare it with the machine count¹⁶. Results are due to be certified by Dec. 11¹⁷.