California could be forced to wait for results thanks to slow vote-counting system

“It’s an invitation to false claims about the reliability of the voting process even though we have the most accessible, secure and verifiable election system in the country.”

Ballots are inspected at the LA County Ballot Processing Center during Tuesday’s election. Photograph: William Liang/AP

For years now, the prime mover behind those false claims has been the Trump White House, which has placed electoral systems across the country under such relentless scrutiny that the integrity of the November midterms is open to question.

Donald Trump has been particularly scathing about absentee ballots, which he blames for his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, and he has repeatedly alleged, in the face of all evidence, that California’s election results are padded by millions of illegal votes cast by noncitizens.

California’s Republicans have taken up much the same theme, pointing to the slow vote count as a symptom of what they see as a broader vote-rigging conspiracy. One gubernatorial candidate, Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco, attempted to seize 650,000 ballots earlier this year in a hunt for evidence of malfeasance by the Democrats. (He was slapped down in court.)

Hilton, meanwhile, has embraced a ballot initiative, due to appear before voters in November, that would impose a strict voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirement. Critics point to states that have adopted similarly strict systems – Indiana, Ohio and others – and say it is a solution to a nonexistent problem that would have a significant chilling effect on lower-income and minority voters.

“Time is of the essence in preventing election lies from taking hold,” Newsom warned in a letter that he sent to county election offices last month, urging them to speed up their counts. “We face an assault on our democratic values unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes, and it’s our job to safeguard those values.”

California’s procedures around absentee ballots are generally praised for the safeguards they provide against fraud. Poll workers are required to cross-check the signature on each envelope against registration records and verify that no voter has cast more than one ballot. If voters forget to sign the envelope or otherwise invalidate their ballot, as many do, they are offered a time window to rectify their mistakes so their votes can still be counted.

But the very thoroughness of the system also causes it to slow to a crawl. Alexander and other experts say most Californians are unaware of the headache they cause by submitting their absentee ballots less than three days before election day. They are often unaware, too, that in 26 counties they have the option of walking their absentee ballot into a polling station and having it processed and counted on the spot – an efficiency Alexander wants to see promoted and expanded to the whole state.

People arrive to drop off their election ballots or vote during the California primary election in San Diego on Tuesday. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Elections specialists in the state legislature have sponsored a flurry of new laws, most of which have passed unanimously, to tighten the counties’ reporting deadlines so all non-problem ballots are counted within 13 days instead of 30, and to limit the window for correcting missing signatures and other mistakes.

These new rules, however, come with no funding attached, and county election officials have expressed frustration that they are expected to do more with the same limited resources. California’s elections chief, secretary of state Shirley Weber, opposed one of the new bills because she felt it put too much pressure on the counties.

At the same time, her critics say, she has done little to lobby for money to pay for more poll workers and more efficient workplace systems. Weber’s office said she had “emphasized” the need for significant resources for the counties to carry out new laws but did not respond directly to the criticism.

Some of the wealthier counties, including Los Angeles and Orange in southern California, have poured additional money of their own into elections infrastructure – and seen remarkable improvements as a result. Los Angeles, whose 10 million residents exceed the populations of 40 states, had counted just 77% of its ballots one week after election day in November 2022. But with a brand-new $10m ballot processing facility two years later, that mark increased to 96.9%.

Alexander said such developments proved that California could do better. “One of the challenges we face is the misconception that we have to trade speed for accuracy, or access, or security. I believe that’s a false choice,” she said. “We can have all of those things if we’re willing to pay for it and if we do the hard work to achieve it.”