The potential benefits of employing optimal discretization-based (ODB) refinement criteria for vector tetrahedra to achieve load balancing in three-dimensional parallel adaptive finite-element electromagnetic analysis are considered. Specifically, the ability of this class of adaption refinement criteria to resolve effective domain decompositions based on initial discretizations with only relatively few tetrahedra is examined for generalized vector Helmholtz systems. The effectiveness of the new load balancing method is demonstrated with adaptively refined finite-element meshes for benchmark systems.Index Terms-Adaptive systems, electromagnetic analysis, finite-element methods, parallel processing.