Why CA election results may be delayed by weeks

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Even after all the votes are cast Tuesday, it could be a while before Californians know the results of some key races in this election, given the state’s notoriously slow vote count.

California huh it was news for lagging behind other states in counting votes. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a letter last month to all 52 county election officials, urging them to “accurately count every legally cast vote as quickly as possible,” saying “disinformation and misinformation” can spread between Election Day and the official certification of results.

The delay is due in part to measures California has implemented to make voting easier in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: Every registered voter receives a ballot by mail, and they are valid as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at county election offices within seven days of the election. It’s California one of the eight countries which allow all elections to be conducted by mail, with varying grace periods for election day postmarked ballots. These grace periods are at risk as the US Supreme Court considers an amendment that would require ballots to arrive before Election Day.

For mail-in ballots that arrive before Tuesday, election officials can begin verifying signatures and preparing ballots for counting; For those who arrive later, election clerks have to do this work later, which delays the results.

According to the election data analysis company Political Data Inc. nearly 17 percent of California’s registered voters had cast ballots as of Monday afternoon, a turnout rate similar to that of 2022.

Paul Mitchell, founder of Political Data Inc., said he expects higher turnout than in 2022 because early results already show higher Republican turnout and some of the Democrats still holding onto their votes are “high propensity voters.”

“There’s a lot of evidence that we’re probably heading for a total participation of 38 percent or 40 percent, instead of the 33 percent that was the participation in 2022,” he said.

According to electoral experts the high proportion of competitive areas in California and long deadlines for correcting errors have also contributed to longer waits for results.

The changes are intended to speed up the count

Several recent changes could affect when Californians know the outcome of certain elections.

The first change concerns the deadline election officials have for a recount: thanks to Bill 5 adopted last year counties now have 13 days to finish counting a majority of the ballots, instead of the previous 30. Newsom noted this change during a press conference last week as a measure to expedite the counting of votes. County officials still have 30 days to finalize the official results.

However, Jesse Salinas, Yolo County’s top elections official and president of the California Association of Election Clerks and Election Officials, said the new law does not apply to ballots that require more time to be counted, including those submitted by voters who registered on Election Day and those where the signature does not match the one on record. State law allows several weeks to resolve these issues.

“I hear comments like, ‘We have to be ready by the 13th,’ but that’s not legally possible under state law,” he said.

Another measure is to reduce the large number of mail-in ballots that arrive at polling stations on Election Day, which slows down vote counting, according to Kim Alexander, president of the California Voters Foundation.

A survey by the foundation revealed that 26 of the state’s 58 counties will offer voters the option of taking their mail-in ballot to an election office on Tuesday to have it scanned and counted the same day as an in-person ballot. This change was possible thanks to Assembly Bill 626 approved in 2023

In Placer County, where the system debuted in 2024 under the name “sign, scan and go,” officials said it cuts post-election processing times in about three or four days.

Some dispute the claim that the lengthy recount process makes it easier for people to cast doubt on the election results.

Mindy Romero, a political sociologist and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California, said the argument rests on allegations of voter fraud that have been repeatedly debunked. He added that the idea that someone rigged the election was “artificially created” by politicians like President Donald Trump to undermine the election process.

“I think we should not focus on correcting something that is wrong or wrong because this long recount is a product of making sure that every vote is verified; in fact, it’s the exact opposite of the allegations of fraud,” he said.