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Why California takes weeks to count votes compared to other states
California is the nation's most populous state. More than 22 million are registered to vote.
File photo. / Reuters
The California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D. met the media in a virtual briefing on the 2024 California General Election.
Madam Secretary provided insights into the process of counting and certifying ballots. County elections officials are hard at work continuing to count ballots from the Nov.5, 2024, General Election.
“We recognize that there would be questions about why the final vote is taking so long. It’s really quite a process if you’ve ever had a chance to work with us and know what it takes to make sure that every vote counts. We will receive our first actual count from all 58 counties on December 6. Certified results will be declared on Dec.13.”
California designed their elections to improve accessibility and increase turnout. Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received by county elections officials no later than 7 days after Election Day are processed. California allows counties to opt into all-mail elections. Then there are the overseas ballots that must be accounted for as well. Additionally California is the nation's most populous state. More than 22 million are registered to vote.
“ As we grow as a state this year we added an additional million voters to the rolls of California. In California, we work to ensure every ballot is counted properly and every ballot is accounted for.”
“We have very specific rules and regulations and purposes and strategies that we use that are necessary in order to be able to count all of the ballots and make sure that all of those ballots count,” added Secretary Weber. This approach involves a series of rigorous checks and safeguards, including signature verification, machine audits, and manual account.
“We make sure that every machine is tested for every election. We have a chain of command in terms of who handles the machines. We have particular specific codes or passwords for every machine. Additionally, before December 13, we hand count 1 percent of the votes to tally them with the machine count,” said the Secretary.
“We do our best to make sure that every Californian who is legally registered to vote will have their vote counted. When we see discrepancies we find persons who have not signed their ballot, whose ballot somehow has been damaged and is difficult to count or to read. We can find that individual based on the fact that all of our envelopes have special codes on them that actually identify the person and the type of ballot. We contacted them to come back and get another ballot,” said the Secretary.
County elections officials have up to 30 days after Election Day to complete their extensive tallying, auditing, and certification work (known as the “official canvass”). The frequency of updated results varies by county. County elections officials must report their final results to the Secretary of State for the Presidential contest by Dec.3 and all other state and federal contests by Dec.5. The Secretary of State will certify the results on Dec.13, 2024.
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