As the presidential race narrows, at least one thing is certain: California helped propel Democrat Joe Biden to win more votes than any presidential candidate in history.
With 70,172,017 popular votes nationwide as of Wednesday morning, Biden had already surpassed former president Barack Obama's popular vote record of 2008 against John McCain: 69,498,516. California accounted for more than a tenth of the total, tallying 7,721,524 for Biden, with votes still on the way.
By many measures, the election is historic: According to the Michael McDonald of the U.S. Election Project, the country is on track to see more than 160 million total votes cast, which would result in the highest turnout rate in 100 years, at 67%, the New York Times reported.
"This 2020 election just generated so much voter enthusiasm," said Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank. "That was something that transformed the election landscape this year, was not just how people felt about President Trump but how they felt about being heard in this election, whether they supported Trump or Joe Biden."
More broadly, Baldassare said, the turnout was influenced by the year California has endured: the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, wildfires, climate change, the housing crisis, homelessness.
"I think it just can't be underestimated, what that says about how people are feeling about the times, but also how they're feeling about democracy, and their importance in participating," he said.
The turnout means President Trump's popular vote totals - which are trailing Biden's but could pick up - could break the popular vote record as well. As of mid-morning on Wednesday, Trump had received 67,390,487 popular votes, with millions of ballots still being counted around the country. Of those, California accounted for 3,898,116.
In California, nearly a third of Biden's popular vote so far has come from Los Angeles County, with 2,247,254 votes. In the Bay Area, Santa Clara County led the charge, with 386,292 by Wednesday morning.
In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton won 8,733,788 popular votes in California, with Trump trailing by almost half: 4,483,810.
The election was still too close to call by Wednesday morning, as ballot counting across the country intensified and prospects shifted quickly in battleground states including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
Annie Vainshtein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain