In California, process slows vote results
Ballots were cast by Tuesday night around California, but the results for many races may remain uncertain for days, even weeks.
It is a familiar waiting game unique to the state, tending to prompt public scrutiny and debate when major races or hot-button issues are at stake.
But the delay is largely connected to the fact that most of the state's 22 million registered voters cast mail ballots — and to an extensive review process that requires more than placing a ballot through a machine.
In California, that means verifying each mail-in ballot through a series of steps, including checking signatures and making sure voters did not cast another ballot elsewhere.
If a signature does not match what is on file, as has been the case with those who mistakenly sign using characters of a foreign language, county officials are required to contact the voter to give that person the opportunity to correct it.
The state also counts ballots that arrive late, as long as they are postmarked with the correct date and arrive within seven days. And while many other states must count ballots within a week, California law allows 30 days.
“It looks like it takes forever because it does,” said Paul Mitchell with Political Data Inc., a data firm based in California.
Mitchell added that the news media and political pundits did a disservice to voters when they place too much focus on how long the results are taking. That can prompt conspiracy theories, particularly when a candidate is in the lead on election night but loses after the rest of the mail-in ballots are counted.
“You've got this conflation of these two issues,” he said. “One is how long it takes, and the other is — and it happens around the country — whether the late vote is a blue shift or a red shift.”
California's election process — and a history of candidates making up substantial ground after initial returns — may delay race calls this year by news outlets and prevent campaigns from conceding on election night. That could be the case for a Senate race featuring three Democratic members of Congress and Steve Garvey, a former baseball star who is the leading Republican candidate.
Mail-in voting grew more popular over the past decade but quickly became the standard in recent years.
In November 2020, the coronavirus pandemic prompted election officials to send every active registered California voter a ballot that could be mailed in or dropped off at vote centers, collection sites that replaced polling places.
Now, more than 90% of votes in California come through the mail. They often need a thorough check.
“They tend to have more stray marks, more corrections by the voter that may hinder it from going through the voting equipment smoothly,” said Ryan Ronco, president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
“For example, a person might vote the wrong oval and cross it out and write, `Not this one — I mean this one,'” he said. “All of those ballots need to go through a different process to be corrected so that we can count voters' intent.”
There is also the issue of good old procrastination.
Voters tend to wait until the very last day to turn in their ballots. Which leads to a huge backup in counting.
As of Monday, the Los Angeles County registrarrecorder's office had received about 573,000 mailin ballots. The county has 5.7 million registered voters and uses a 144,000-squarefoot former Fry's Electronics store as its ballot processing center.
Mike Sanchez, a spokesperson for the registrar-recorder's office, said that the agency has encouraged voters to avoid waiting until Election Day. “But historically, what we've seen is that folks do,” he said.
Orange County officials invested $4 million in equipment to scan bar codes and take photos of signatures, said Bob Page, the county's registrar of voters.
“We wanted the capacity to process more at a time, which you would think logically would be quicker,” he said. “But if we get 500,000 ballots on Election Day, it's still going to take us time.”
California is one of eight states that allow elections to occur entirely by mail, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
California tested mailballot elections in select counties before the pandemic and permanently expanded the approach statewide after it had its highest turnout percentage in decades in November 2020.
Earlier, Republicans questioned California's process after Democrats gained crucial votes in the 2018 congressional races as election offices processed ballots for weeks after Election Day. No fraud was found.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump sowed doubt about mail-ballot elections, discouraging other Republicans from supporting the approach on a statewide basis.