Some Californians carved Halloween pumpkins or took their children trick-or-treating as they cast their votes in this year’s elections. They are currently putting up Christmas trees in some areas while authorities are still counting votes.
Now that most of the vote counting has concluded, most races, including close races, have been called by the media. In Orange County, Democrat Derek Tran was declared the winner last week in his race against incumbent Michelle Steele.
With the Iowa race called that same week, California now claims the honor of being home to the nation’s last uncalled Congressional race. It’s the Central Valley’s 13th Congressional District, with Democratic challenger Adam Gray leading Republican U.S. Rep. John Duarte by 143 votes with an estimated 99% vote count as of Monday afternoon.
That doesn’t mean everyone should continue to hate California for taking so long. First of all, we have more people than any other state. Second, all voters in the state are automatically mailed a ballot starting about a month before Election Day. In Los Angeles County, more than 70% of voters mailed or dropped off their ballots, said Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the county Registrar-Recorder. According to the California Secretary of State’s Office, nearly 90% of voters cast their ballots by mail in the 2022 midterm elections.
Californians can also register and vote with a provisional ballot on Election Day. These ballots will take longer to process.
California ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 5 to be counted, but election officials could receive them up to seven days later. All mailed ballots must be checked to ensure the signature matches the one on the voter rolls. If not, voters will be contacted and told they can amend, or “fix,” their ballots with their signatures.
Voters in the state had until Dec. 1 to amend their ballots. So even though Christmas shopping is in full swing, votes are still being counted.
Los Angeles County officials have been processing and counting ballots every day except Thanksgiving since Nov. 6, the day after Election Day, Sanchez said. In fact, the week after the election, counties were processing ballots in shifts around the clock.
Could some counties process and count ballots more quickly? Maybe. Some state lawmakers are interested in finding ways to speed up the process.
But more importantly, the slower pace gives voters enough time and several ways to submit their ballots and then resolve any issues that might prevent their votes from being counted. This means that it has become like this. The painstaking process of collecting and verifying these ballots speaks both to the integrity of our elections and to giving voters access and opportunity to vote.
So it’s worth waiting for some races that seemed to take forever to take place.
Closure is approaching. All counties must submit statewide election results by Friday. (As far as state officials are aware, no county has missed the deadline so far.) And while the Secretary of State is scheduled to certify the statewide election results on Dec. 13, there are still weeks until the winner’s term begins. It takes.
