SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the nation’s most populous state, California also has one of the longest vote counting processes.
Some critics say the state’s slow vote counting process leads to distrust, while supporters say there are several laws that county officials need to follow to make sure every vote counts.
“The key difference is that a lot of these places that people compare us to have just a one-day option to vote, where we have multiple days which is an advantage that others don’t have,” said Yolo County Registrar Jesse Salinas.
California is one of eight states that mails a ballot to every eligible voter.
“A lot of voters will wait until the last day on Election Day to cast their ballot and they will vote by mail or they will do it through this conditional process. So, what that means is we have to wait until after Election Day to start processing all of those ballots and that does take time,” Salinas explained.
Salinas is also the president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
“I think the most critical part is that the integrity of the election process is upheld. In this case, I’m making sure nobody is voting that shouldn’t be and that at the end of the day, even if it takes a little bit longer, we just want to make sure we get it right.”
California is also one of twenty states that allows voters to register on Election Day, which in turn extends the time to count every ballot.
“For example, here in Yolo County, we have over 5,000 people that submitted a conditional voter registration package. If we didn’t have same day voter registration, those 5,000 folks wouldn’t have been able to vote in this election,” adds Salinas.
In Los Angeles County, there were more than 100,000 people that turned in a conditional ballot.
Kim Alexander, with the California Voter foundation, says there are ways to speed up the vote counting process while preserving voting rights.
“One thing that counties have found to be effective is getting more equipment, which we cannot overlook the fact that elections are a chronically underfunded government service that both the state and federal government do not pay their fair share of the cost for conducting,” said Alexander.
As part of an effort to increase transparency in the election results, the California Voter foundation launched a tracking tool that provides daily updates on the most competitive races.
“We’re hoping that by providing this data and capturing these results each day and preserving them, we create this narrative that helps people understand how we got from election night when one party was doing well to different outcomes by the time all the ballots are counted.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, there was still one congressional race that had not been called by the AP.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene took to X on Wednesday to accuse Democrats of "stealing another House seat."
“Elections nationwide should be one day, paper ballots, and require proof of citizenship with ID,” she said on X.
County officials in Merced County said there is no evidence of election fraud.
Alexander hopes that by posting daily updates on the tracker, people can see how the counts change over time.
“We decided to undertake a project this election to help shine a light on the process and to help demystify what is going on and give people some confidence in the integrity of the vote count,” Alexander noted.
Republican state lawmaker Joe Patterson plans to introduce legislation in the upcoming year to help accelerate California’s vote count.
“I want to create some level of metrics and consistency at the county level to ensure they’re counting at an appropriate time,” said Patterson.
The Rocklin legislator believes the state’s slow process can lead to distrust in the system.
“California should not be an embarrassment of the entire nation, it should be a shining star of the entire nation, but unfortunately that’s not what we are when it comes to counting ballots,” he adds.
All counties must certify the election results by the Dec. 5 deadline.