More than two weeks after Election Day, California still has more than 300,000 ballots left to count.
California is the most populous state in the nation, home to nearly 39 million residents, at least 16 million of whom cast a ballot in this year's election. It has been consistently one of the slowest states to count and report its votes in recent elections, in part because the state is so large and also because most ballots are cast by mail.
The fact that there are still hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count in California isn't particularly surprising. Election officials said it would take weeks to count every ballot, and the state similarly took a few weeks to report its final results in the 2020 and 2022 elections. Some critics have said the state should report its results quicker, but state election officials say they report them as quickly as they can.
California's elections are mostly conducted by mail, and it takes more time and effort to verify mail-in ballots than those cast in person. Each ballot must be individually validated and processed, the Associated Press points out, and this is a more thorough process than simply scanning a ballot at a polling place.
Elections officials implemented the mail-in voting system to improve turnout and make it easier for Californians to cast their ballot.
"Most of our votes that come in are by mail, and as a result, that requires verification of the signature on the envelopes. And so we have to open the envelopes, we have to verify the signature and all of those things before we can accept that ballot," Secretary of State Shirley Weber told Sacramento TV station KTXL. "We have to make sure that that's the person who actually sent that ballot in."
Some critics have raised concerns about the slow counting fueling doubt about the state's election results, although there has been no evidence of any election fraud in California or any other state. California Assemblyman Joe Patterson, a Republican, told Sacramento TV station KCRA that the state's slower election reporting "sows distrust in the system, and we need more confidence in our elections system."
"Just because it's been a problem for a long time doesn't mean we can't solve it or shouldn't solve it," he said.
Weber defended the slower process in her interview on KTXL.
"We have some questions about it. You'd want us to be accurate. You'd want us to basically go in and find out if that's really our signature. You'd want us to make sure that is really our ballot and that our ballet gets counted," she said.
She urged patience in a post to X (formerly Twitter) this week.
"Counting every vote takes time, but at the CA Secretary of State's office, we're committed to ensuring every eligible vote is counted. Final results will be certified on December 13th. Thank you for your patience as we work to protect your voice in our democracy," she wrote.
As of Friday morning, 315,705 ballots still needed to be counted. While the number of uncounted ballots appears high, it accounts for only about 2 percent of the state's total vote. The largest number of uncounted ballots is in Los Angeles County, the state's largest.
California counties have until December 3 to report their final results, meaning they have more than a week to continue counting and verifying ballots.
Lake County, which is north of San Francisco, has the highest percentage of ballots remaining. Fifty-three percent of ballots in the county have yet to be counted.
Statewide, 118,000 ballots still need to be cured. Ballot curing is a process in which election officials help voters fix mistakes, such as signatures that cannot be verified, on rejected ballots to ensure they can be counted by the deadline.
California House Races Draw Attention to Counting Process
California's ballot counting process often flies under the radar because it's such a Democratic state that statewide races are rarely competitive. Vice President Kamala Harris is on track to win it by 20 points, according to The New York Times.
But this year, a handful of congressional races in the state where the Democratic and GOP candidates are separated by razor-thin margins have drawn more attention to the process. Republicans have already taken control of the House, but the outcome of these races will determine how small their majority will be. Republicans have won 219 seats, while the Democrats have 213. Only three races across the country haven't been called, and two of them are in California.
California's 13th District race between Republican Representative John Duarte and Democrat Adam Gray is one of those districts. Duarte leads by less than 200 votes, meaning the leftover votes could skew the result either way.
The district comprises parts of Fresno, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties. There are still 23,701 uncounted ballots in those counties, though it's unclear how many of those ballots are in the 13th District versus other districts made up of those counties. But even a small shift in voting could affect the outcome of the race, given its close nature.
California's 45th District, made up of mostly Orange County along with a small sliver of Los Angeles County, is the other district that has yet to be called. Republican Representative Michelle Steel trails Democrat Derek Tran by less than 500 votes. It's unclear how many ballots are left to count in the district.
As these races' votes slowly trickle in, some conservatives have spread unsubstantiated claims that Democrats are trying to steal the seats.
Other states have taken action to ensure quicker vote counts, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic brought a nationwide surge in mail-in voting in 2020. Some states begin processing ballots before the polls close, allowing them to count and report their totals quicker.
The Washington Post's editorial board has criticized California's counting process, writing that it is "failing" to achieve "timeliness and clarity of results," leading to the "further erosion of already-low public confidence in elections."
"California's leaders could consider shortening the time voters have to, say, cure their ballots. Or they could accept that California's voter-friendly election rules oblige the state to provide resources to minimize predictable delays. Better to have too many staffers on hand around Election Day to help process, count and cure ballots than too few," the editorial says.
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