In the wake of a painfully slow June vote count in California that led to unfounded claims of election irregularities, a voter watchdog group Monday recommended the state and counties carry out a number of voting reforms that could speed up tabulations. Not all of them, however, are likely to happen before November.<\/p>\n
The California Voter Foundation, a nonprofit group with a mission to improve the election process for voters, issued a report<\/a> pushing for several changes to the ballot signature-curing process: The state, it said, should shorten the curing timeline from 22 to 14 days, expand voter access to and awareness of electronic ballot signature curing and have the state collect and publish comprehensive signature-curing data.<\/p>\n The group also urged the state to enable most close races to be called by the Friday after election day and let counties, in extremely close contests, prioritize counting those ballots first. The state, it said, should also provide local election offices with additional funding to enable them to speed up ballot processing, improve the public reporting of unofficial results with clearer terminology and real-time updates, and inform voters they can help by returning vote-by-mail ballots earlier or voting in person.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia doesn\u2019t have to choose between an accessible, secure election system and timely results,\u201d Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said in a statement. \u201cOur research shows we can combat the long vote count while preserving \u2014 and in some cases strengthening \u2014 the protections that make California elections accessible and trustworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n Alexander told The Times that two of the California Voter Foundation\u2019s 10 recommendations \u2014 providing election officials with more funding and encouraging voters to cast ballots earlier or in person \u2014 are already underway<\/a>. <\/p>\n Four more recommendations \u2014 expanding voter access to and awareness of electronic ballot signature-curing, acquiring signature-curing data, prioritizing close races to be counted first, and improving public reporting of unofficial results \u2014 could be implemented by November, she said. (Prioritizing close races to be counted first is not a feasible change at the state level, Alexander said, but county boards of supervisors could request it of their election offices before November.)<\/p>\n Some of the group\u2019s key recommendations are unlikely to take place before November. Shortening the ballot-curing window, Alexander said, would probably require a broader discussion with election stakeholders and is contingent on there being broad voter access to electronic signature-curing options, which are not in place yet. <\/p>\n Enabling most close races to be called by the Friday after election day by providing more precise data on unprocessed ballots in those contests, Alexander said, is also not likely to happen by November. Many local election officials oppose the idea, she said, because it takes away from time they could be spending processing ballots. <\/p>\n \u201cWe included it to begin the discussion,\u201d Alexander said, noting that for some counties, making precise data available on unprocessed ballots would not be as heavy a lift because they already sort their ballots by precinct before processing.<\/p>\n After the June primary election, California elections officials were criticized for taking about a week to determine which gubernatorial<\/a> and Los Angeles mayoral<\/a> candidates would advance to November\u2019s runoff. The delays caused many to question why California, which has instituted a series of reforms in recent years designed to make voting easier and safer, lags behind other states in counting results.<\/p>\n The slow count was used by some on the right \u2014 including President Trump \u2014 to sow unfounded doubts about the results.<\/p>\n According to the report, the share of California\u2019s ballots counted within two days of election day dropped from 81% in 2004 to 66% in 2024, with a slight uptick between 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n Even if the state follows its recommendations, the California Voter Foundation report said, California will probably take longer than other states to count election results because of its size and steps it has taken in recent years to make voting more accessible and secure. \u201cHowever,\u201d it said, \u201caiming to return to a status where the outcomes of most contests are known by the end of Election Week is a realistic goal.\u201d<\/p>\n Voters can also help speed up the election count, the report said, by voting in person or returning vote-by-mail ballots earlier \u2014 ideally the Saturday before the election.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery voter has a role to play in accelerating the voter count,\u201d Alexander told The Times. <\/p>\n \u201cOur advice is if you want to take as much time as possible, turn in your ballot at a voting site on election day,\u201d she said, noting in the majority of counties, voters can cast a mail-in ballot as an in-person ballot. \u201cIf they can take the extra time to also cast it as an in-person ballot, that\u2019s even better.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the current system, every California voter receives a mail-in ballot and it is counted as long as the envelope is postmarked by election day and it arrives at an election office within seven days of that date.<\/p>\n Voters who want to vote by mail should not depend too much on the seven-day grace period, Alexander said. She urged voters to mail their ballot a week before election day or take it to a post office and ask for it to be hand-postmarked to avoid running the risk of the ballot not getting postmarked by election day,<\/p>\n