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Though California voters are heading to the polls tonight, they may not know the results of several key primary races for days – a fact that has people across the political spectrum raising concerns.
“The fact that California elections often can’t be resolved for weeks is kind of insane and not common in other electoral systems around the world,” Nate Silver, a top political data analyst, wrote on X on Tuesday afternoon. “Like honestly ‘it’s going to take us several weeks to tell you who won the election’ is failed state sh-t and should be much more stigmatized. The fact that it’s tolerated is bad too a textbook example of learned helplessness.”
Lengthy vote counts in California are a product of the state’s reliance on mail voting and its thorough review process. Under California law, every registered voter receives a mail-in ballot and votes that arrive at election offices up to a week after election day are considered valid so long as they were postmarked by election day.
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In tight primaries where a handful of votes decide outcomes, this process can cause voters to go weeks without knowing who will advance to the general election.
“Every other state manages to count its votes in a somewhat timely manner,” Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent who caucuses with the GOP, wrote on X. “California’s inability to competently handle the basic administration of democracy is embarrassing. It’s also indicative of why our state has so many other problems.”
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Florida famously tweaked its election laws after the state failed to declare a winner during the 2004 presidential election and has since had relatively few problems in providing quick and accurate counts.
Some, however, defend California’s system, arguing that the slow pace of counting is a worthwhile trade-off to ensure greater access for voters.
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“The delayed count is in service of maximizing turnout and access,” Democratic strategist Addisu Demissie wrote on X. “LA County is bigger than 40 states, but, well, a county.”
He added that critics were being unreasonable, as knowing the results of the elections by the end of the week, which he says is acceptable.
David Dayen, executive editor at The American Prospect, a liberal magazine, pointed out that fraud prevention efforts – such as checking all ballot signatures against a master file – lengthen the counting process.
In a different vein, Logan Dobson, a conservative political operative, argued that California’s slow vote counting could throw the nation into disarray if the United States moved to a national popular vote system, leaving the results of presidential elections unclear for days or even weeks.
“This is correct and extremely embarrassing for US democracy,” Princeton Professor Arthur Spirling wrote, responding to Silver’s criticism. “What’s also bad is the number of people, political scientists among them, who show up to tell you there’s no other way and you’re damaging the civic fabric by pointing out how ridiculous it is.”
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