Everyone agrees it would be nice to know the outcomes of California elections sooner.<\/p>\n
What they can\u2019t agree upon is whether and how to make that happen.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s glacial pace of counting primary votes \u2014 it took a week before enough ballots were counted to call the marquee governor\u2019s race<\/a> \u2014 has once again captured national attention and sparked a new round of conspiracy theories, as well as serious calls for reform.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to overstate how much of an outlier California is for its slow vote-counting relative to literally any other state or almost any other industrialized democracy,\u201d wrote Nate Silver<\/a>, the popular election data analyst, on social media three days after polls closed. One of the most liked responses to Silver claimed the delay is an intentional effort to rig the outcome.<\/p>\n Even The New York Times editorial board got in on the criticism, declaring<\/a> that California\u2019s delayed results were \u201cdamaging faith in government\u201d and priming voters to believe election skeptics such as President Donald Trump and his allies. Gov. Gavin Newsom has urged counties to produce results faster, arguing that delays erode trust in the results and provide fertile ground for misinformation.<\/p>\n But state Democratic leaders, along with some advocates, argue that speeding up the count would mean disenfranchising voters. Most still refuse to consider any changes that would make voting harder, even if they would only affect a small fraction of voters.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want results election night, you\u2019re going to have to go back to in-person voting, way earlier deadlines for returning by mail, and you\u2019re going to end up disenfranchising voters,\u201d said Assemblymember Gail Pellerin<\/a>, chair of her chamber\u2019s election committee and the former Santa Cruz County registrar.<\/p>\n In a reality seemingly isolated from the public outcry, Pellerin says the count is going as smoothly as ever.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actually going really well, and elections officials are working around the clock, and we\u2019re getting results,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Several of Pellerin\u2019s Democratic colleagues who have championed election reform bills, including Assemblymember Marc Berman<\/a> of Palo Alto and Sen. Tom Umberg<\/a> of Santa Ana, said they wouldn\u2019t support restricting access in favor of quicker results.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a candidate, believe me, I would love for the counting to happen faster,\u201d said Sen. Scott Wiener<\/a>, a San Francisco Democrat and chair of his chamber\u2019s elections committee who is running for Congress. \u201cI don\u2019t think the right answer is disenfranchising people.\u201d<\/p>\n California\u2019s secretary of state, Shirley Weber, also sees no urgency in counting faster<\/a>. She has dismissed concerns about slow returns as a Trump talking point. She\u2019s expected to easily win another four-year term this fall.<\/p>\n \u201cI know the value of being fast for some folks,\u201d Weber told CalMatters in April. \u201cFor me, accuracy is far more important.\u201d<\/p>\n While The Times editorial took aim at California\u2019s seven-day grace period for late-arriving ballots \u2014 a policy that\u2019s on thin ice as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether to invalidate a similar law in Mississippi \u2014 most of the delay stems from the sheer volume of mail-in ballots<\/a> that counties receive on Election Day or the day before.<\/p>\n Who should pay for speedier results?<\/p>\n During the pandemic, California implemented a universal vote-by-mail system in which every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail.<\/p>\n And Californians love it: Nearly 90% of votes in last year\u2019s statewide special election were mail-in ballots. In contrast, 10 years ago, fewer than 60%<\/a> of general election voters cast ballots by mail.<\/p>\n But mail-in ballots require far more time and energy to process compared to in-person ballots that are fed through a machine onsite. They require more money, too, but California counties have not received funding to compensate them, said Eric McGhee, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re kind of managing the best they can with the budget that they have,\u201d McGhee said, referring to county registrars. \u201cBut it\u2019s a lot to handle.\u201d<\/p>\n