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Almost a week after Election Day, votes are still being counted in California, creating an agonizing wait for the nation to find out who will be the next leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.
It’s no surprise that California is taking its time reviewing, processing, and counting the ballots of its more than 22 million registered voters.
For the record:
Nov. 13, 2024 9:52 a.m. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number of undecided House district races as of Tuesday. There were nine races that were undecided.
While some may see this delay as a problem, Russia Chavis Cardenas, voting rights and redistricting program manager at California Common Cause, said it’s a virtue.
“This means that election officials are doing everything in their power to fairly and accurately count all legitimate ballots,” Cárdenas said.
California has an estimated 5 million ballots that still need to be counted, according to the California Secretary of State’s latest report on backlogged ballots.
The county leading the way in outstanding ballots is Los Angeles, with a mind-boggling 1 million ballots left to be counted. Ballots waiting to be counted include some same-day votes, but most are mail-in ballots.
The majority of backlogged ballots in counties across the state are mail-in ballots.
Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said registered voters tend to keep their mail-in ballots until Election Day and everyone turns in their ballots at once.
Counting mail-in votes is not easy.
Election authorities began processing and verifying mail-in ballots 29 days before election day. However, registered voters voting by mail could submit their ballots in a variety of ways. They could also mail their ballots on or before Election Day, drop them in the mailbox, or authorize someone to return them on their behalf.
Ballot envelopes for mail-in ballots will be inspected to ensure they are signed and that the signature matches the signature on file. If a voter’s signature is missing or does not match the signature on file, California law requires election officials to notify the voter and give them an opportunity to resolve the issue, which can also delay the process. There is sex.
“We are giving voters a lot of opportunities to avoid being disenfranchised,” Alexander said.
For example, states allow ballots to be accepted up to seven days after an election as long as they are postmarked on Election Day or before the election.
If a mail-in ballot is dropped off in a mailbox in another county, election officials must send it to the correct county recorder’s office to be counted.
Alexander said many states “don’t have these safeguards in place in their systems to protect voters and ensure minimal disenfranchisement.”
To ensure all votes are counted, the state is giving counties 30 days to complete their counts, with the Secretary of State expected to certify the results on Dec. 13.
The way ballots are processed isn’t the only factor delaying election results. Candidates from small parties were removed from the general election ballot, leaving only the top two candidates in each race. As a result, the number of votes for candidates from the major parties left on the ballot has increased, and the margins have narrowed.
Vote counting in California has always taken 30 days, but voters didn’t realize it until the House majority became so narrow that “everyone was waiting to see the results,” Alexander said.
California has seven House seats yet to be decided. The California Voter Foundation monitors Congressional and Congressional races through its Vote Count Transparency Project. This project aims to provide a clear picture of how the margins of undecided races change as the number of votes counted increases.
According to the nonprofit group, two races flipped from Republican to Democratic candidates in the 27th Congressional District (Los Angeles County) and the 47th Congressional District (Orange County) during last week’s vote counting process, which included Friday and Saturday. took the lead.
As of Saturday, Democratic candidates were leading in five races, Republican candidates were leading in four, and the remaining two had already been called by The Associated Press, the project said.
In most congressional races the nonprofit tracks, Democratic candidates’ leads increase and Republican candidates’ leads decrease as votes are counted.
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