Local election officials verify the signature on every mail ballot and check that the voter has not already cast a ballot in another jurisdiction before counting it. today, county election offices had counted about 9.5 million votes, but still had more than 1.5 million ballots left to process. By comparison, in the June primary this year, more than 91% of voters cast mail ballots and slightly less than half were counted within two days of election day.Īs of 5 p.m. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMattersĪ recent analysis by the nonprofit California Voter Foundation found that, in November 2004, when fewer than a third of voters cast mail ballots, nearly 81% of voters were counted within two days of election day. Election workers sort ballots at the Sacramento County voter registration and elections office in Sacramento on Nov. Some experts point to additional factors, including the sheer size of California and its independent redistricting process, which creates more competitive races where the outcome cannot be determined as quickly.īut the timeline is fundamentally driven by mail ballots, which simply take longer to count than those cast at a polling place on election day. Gavin Newsom signed a law last year making that permanent. The state implemented no-excuse absentee voting in 2002, which during the coronavirus pandemic became a system where every active registered voter is mailed a ballot. The crawling pace of election results in California - with updates dribbling out day by day - stems from changes in how people vote over the past two decades. Is it worth the price, the cost?” Mail ballots slow the tally “Is there a way to make it faster? Yes, there is. “The current hysteria generated by some is a lot of bunk that feeds their ideological agenda to the detriment of trust in our democracy,” Glazer said. Glazer added that no one has ever raised serious concerns with him about the speed of vote counting. Instant answers, he said, are not more important than ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the results. Steve Glazer, an Orinda Democrat who leads the Senate committee on elections. They’re built on a foundation that every person’s vote matters,” said state Sen. “Democracies are not meant to be efficient. With policymakers focused instead on improving accessibility, participation and security, the waiting game seems here to stay. Though election experts in California say there are several ways the state could potentially speed up the tally, there is little urgency to prioritize them. In reality, the extended count, which will take a month to finish, is a consequence of California’s shift to overwhelmingly voting by mail, a convenience that requires several additional steps of verification by local officials once ballots arrive. Mike Garcia in his Los Angeles-area district, finally handing Republicans a slim majority in the new Congress.Īs tense days ticked by without resolution, political pundits across the country once again lamented why the vote count takes so long in California, while conservatives resurfaced concerns that late-arriving ballots and slow results exposed Democratic efforts to steal close races. All eyes had turned to more than half a dozen uncalled races in California when, on Wednesday, the Associated Press projected victory for Rep. House of Representatives remained undetermined. Are there ways to count votes faster without undermining election security?įor more than a week after the Nov. California has expanded voting access and participation, but that can delay election results.
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