The post includes headshots of California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom<\/a> and Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis<\/a>, who have supported vastly different policies on election administration.<\/p>\n Screenshot of a Facebook post taken August 19, 2026<\/p>\n Similar posts<\/a> spread across platforms<\/a> — including\u00a0 X<\/a>, TikTok<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> — after Florida’s August 2026\u00a0 primary election<\/a>.<\/p>\n The posts\u00a0follow US President Donald Trump’s efforts<\/a>\u00a0to restrict the use of mail ballots<\/a> — a method he himself chose to\u00a0 vote<\/a> in the Florida primary.<\/p>\n They also come after weeks of false fraud allegations<\/a> dogged California’s June primary elections, and particularly the race for Los Angeles mayor<\/a> that saw incumbent Democrat Karen Bass and progressive candidate Nithya Raman advance (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n California does take more time to count ballots than Florida, in part because it has a larger voting population<\/a> and a far higher percentage of voters opting to cast mail ballots<\/a> (archived here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n But\u00a0 observers<\/a> from all eligible political parties are permitted to monitor the process, and experts said there is\u00a0 no evidence<\/a> the state’s voting system<\/a> has left it open to widespread fraud (archived here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n “It would be a much more accurate conclusion to say that it takes a long time because they are being careful and they are preventing fraud,” said\u00a0 Melissa Michelson<\/a>, a political scientist at Menlo College in California, told AFP on August 19, 2026 (archived\u00a0 here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Different deadlines<\/p>\n Congress sets Election Day<\/a> for federal races, but each state passes its\u00a0 own rules<\/a> for election administration, including regulations about voter registration, the use of mail ballots and when election officials can begin processing materials (archived\u00a0 here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n The biggest difference is that in California, a ballot is counted<\/a> so long as it was postmarked on or before Election Day and arrives within seven days (archived\u00a0 here<\/a>). By contrast, Florida requires ballots to be received<\/a> by 7 pm on Election Day (archived\u00a0 here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Republicans had challenged a Mississippi statute that was similar to California’s, but the Supreme Court\u00a0 ruled 5-4 in June<\/a> to uphold the law, leaving decisions about ballot receipt dates in the hands of the states.<\/p>\n The non-partisan California Voter Foundation<\/a> celebrated the preservation of the grace period for mail-in votes, citing the 406,132 ballots — or 2.5 percent of the overall turnout — that were received after Election Day in the state’s 2024 general election (archived\u00a0 here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Another difference is that California permits registration<\/a> on Election Day, with ballots only processed and counted once officials complete a voter verification process (archived here<\/a>). Florida has a registration cutoff<\/a> 29 days before Election Day (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Both\u00a0 California<\/a> and Florida<\/a> let officials open and process mail ballots ahead of Election Day, including validating the voter’s signature against one on file and contacting those with missing or mismatched signatures to\u00a0 “cure” their ballot<\/a>\u00a0(archived here<\/a> and here<\/a>). But here again,\u00a0 California<\/a> offers a weeks-long window to correct the issue, while Florida<\/a> requires voters to do so by “5 pm on the 2nd day after the election” (archived\u00a0 here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Michelson, from Menlo College, said that California could dedicate more money to hiring temporary staff to process ballots, but that the Golden State releases results slower than Florida primarily because the processing job is bigger.<\/p>\n “They are delayed by a week because of the different laws, and it’s a resource allocation issue,” she said.<\/p>\n Michael Morley<\/a>, director of the Florida State University Election Law Center (archived here<\/a>), added: “At virtually ever step of the process, the system in Florida is structured in a way that facilitates the development of election results much more rapidly, much more efficiently than California’s system.”<\/p>\n Florida\u00a0made significant changes<\/a> to its election administration following the 2000 presidential election, in which a poorly designed ballot had officials recounting votes for weeks, leaving the race to eventually be decided by the Supreme Court<\/a> (archived here<\/a> and here<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n “A well structured election system is going to try to balance ensuring that every eligible citizen has the opportunity to cast their vote and have it counted while also bolstering public confidence in the system,” Morley told AFP on August 20, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Officials should seek to avoid unnecessary delays, he said, but when results take time to be released, it “doesn’t mean that anything nefarious is afoot.”<\/p>\n In 2023, California passed a bill<\/a> aimed at helping speed up counting (archived\u00a0 here<\/a>). The legislation has seen some counties adopt\u00a0 “Sign, Scan & Go”<\/a> — a process that allows a voter to fill out a mail ballot at home and then bring it to a vote center to be scanned, so that it can be included in results announced on election night (archived\u00a0 here<\/a>).<\/p>\n![\"<span>Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/afp_factcheck_us_713\/2e6635bea31b047f312aeb09cf3af284.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n