{"id":235811,"date":"2026-03-25T13:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235811\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T13:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:23:09","slug":"california-can-achieve-faster-easier-elections-with-a-few-straightforward-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235811\/","title":{"rendered":"California can achieve faster, easier elections with a few straightforward changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the editor: California can absolutely make voting both easier and faster \u2014 but with a less convoluted approach than columnist Mark Z. Barabak suggests (\u201cCalifornia can have both easy voting and quicker election results. Here\u2019s how,\u201d<\/a> March 22).<\/p>\n

First, set a clear, firm standard: All mail-in ballots must be received by election day. No gray areas, no extended uncertainty. Voters who wait until the last minute can still participate \u2014 by dropping off their ballots in person at designated polling sites on election day. That preserves access while restoring timely results.<\/p>\n

Second, strengthen confidence and speed by encouraging in-person voting with voter ID. Verifying identity at the point of voting eliminates the slow, error-prone process of signature matching after the fact. The result: ballots validated instantly, counts finalized sooner and greater public trust in the outcome.<\/p>\n

Efficiency and integrity aren\u2019t competing goals. With straightforward rules like these, California can \u2014 and should \u2014 deliver both.<\/p>\n

Brian Suckow, Palo Alto<\/p>\n

..<\/p>\n

To the editor: An easy fix presents itself to alleviate the majority of our voting returns woes: Remove the restrictions on early release of voting results accompanied with sufficient notification that these are not official results. Yes, we must check every last signature, but we should not be forced to wait up to a month to know outcomes. Save the long waits for the tight races; the majority of outcomes are quickly apparent.<\/p>\n

John C. Nelson, Los Angeles<\/p>\n

..<\/p>\n

To the editor: James Rainey’s article about the mess in the gubernatorial race recommends ranked-choice voting as a way out (\u201cRank choice voting could have saved Democrats from their governor\u2019s race mess,\u201d<\/a> March 20). The system described is actually instant-runoff voting, the worst of several ranked-choice alternatives. It throws votes away, raising grave constitutional concerns.<\/p>\n

By the nature of its algorithm, it fails to find the majority winner and often leads to paradoxical results. Moreover, by requiring centralized tallying, it greatly slows the vote-counting process. Partial (e.g. precinct) counts do nothing but mislead voters and candidates as to the likely outcome.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Condorcet voting, aka instant round-robin, pairs candidates head to head and finds the candidate who defeats all others. It’s also much simpler and can be done by hand if necessary or preferred.<\/p>\n

Karen A. Wyle, Bloomington, Ind.<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: California can absolutely make voting both easier and faster \u2014 but with a less convoluted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,4674,23387,11086,47,137,63,106568],"class_list":{"0":"post-235811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-election-day","12":"tag-election-results","13":"tag-genaro-molina","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-county","16":"tag-los-angeles-times","17":"tag-voting-results"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}