By late November, the nervous energy of Election Night ballot watching has settled into something much more deliberate, slow and lengthy.

Provisional ballots can be blamed, or credited, depending on whether your candidate still hopes to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.

In outstanding races around California, provisional ballots - those cast without elections officials or the voters themselves sure if they'll count - are the bulk of what's left to be counted.

And elections officials said because provisional ballots need a more thorough examination than other ballots, they take longer.

That may be even truer this year, with record-high voter turnout in California expected to result in a record-high provisional ballot count as well.

Though there's no official tally yet, Steve Weir, past president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, said his "guesstimate" is that there would be about 700,000 provisional ballots statewide.

Given the narrow margin in such races as the 4th Congressional District and the 19th State Senate District, the race is likely to be decided by those provisional ballots, which numbered in the thousands in both of those contests.

And that's where the slowdown begins. To be counted, provisional ballots must pass muster on several levels, according to the California Secretary of State's office.

Those include determining that whoever cast the ballot was legally registered to do so, that they did so in the proper voting precinct, and that they didn't cast more than one ballot.

Ryan Ronco, assistant registrar of voters in Placer County, said most voters who requested a provisional ballot in the Nov. 4 election said they hadn't received a requested vote-by-mail ballot.

In that county, he said, there were about 4,000 provisional ballots, hundreds more than any previous high-water mark for Placer, which finished its vote count this week.

There were also about 18,000 vote-by-mail ballots, he said. "But it took double the time to count the 4,000 provisionals than it did the 18,000 vote-by-mails," he said.

Weir, who is also Contra Costa County's Registrar of Voters, said counting each provisional ballot can take anywhere from six to 10 minutes. As well, a provisional rejected by a worker will then have to be inspected by a supervisor.

Rejection rates vary; Ronco said about 90 percent of such ballots were verified in Placer, but only about 82 percent got the stamp of approval in Contra Costa, according to Weir.

And legal challenges can also play a role, if a campaign believes some provisional ballots were unlawfully counted or rejected.

In CD-04, the campaigns for both Republican Tom McClintock and Democrat Charlie Brown have retained legal counsel, and Brown's campaign has warned that they'll fight for every vote to be counted.

However, all ballots have to be fully counted by Dec. 2, or one full month after the election. The counties must send their certified results to the state by Dec. 9, and the state then must certify the election by Dec. 13.

Weir noted that many counties finish their counts sooner, with some rushing to finish this week before the normal Thanksgiving holiday weekend.