‘Election lies’ could take hold if results in California take weeks, officials warn | California

California’s primary elections, including the closely contested governor’s race, will be at the mercy of a notoriously slow vote-counting system after polls close on Tuesday, and the results of the toughest races could take days or even weeks to become clear.

Voting experts expect the state’s 58 county election offices to be inundated with last-minute absentee ballots, as they have been in the last few election cycles, and face a grueling ballot verification process for weeks.

This poses a procedural problem when races are close, as they tend to be in the state’s most competitive congressional districts, and so is the entire country. I stopped waiting – As in 2020, 2022 and 2024 – to find out which party controls the House of Representatives.

It’s also a political headache that worries everyone from the state’s outgoing Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, to the aggrieved Republican party, which has failed to win statewide office in 20 years and has become increasingly bold in accusing political rivals of playing dirty even without evidence.

‘Time is of the essence to prevent election lies from spreading,’ Newsom warns letter Last month, he sent it to district election offices and asked them to speed up the counting. “We are facing an attack on our democratic values ​​that we have never seen before, and it is our duty to protect these values.”

More than 25% of the total votes in California in the 2024 presidential election arrived too late to be counted until election day. This time the rate may be even higher as many Californians make a strategic decision. postpone their vote until we get a clearer picture of who has a chance to finish in the top two in the crowded governor’s race and advance to the general election in November. Recent polls show a volatile three-way race between two Democrats, Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer, and Republican front-runner Steve Hilton.

In a state with more than 23 million registered voters, that volume is already, as one voting expert put it, “overworkunderappreciated and under attack.’ Opinion polls and other data also show that it is also a threat. voter disappointment all over the political spectrum.

“Like it or not, the more time that passes between election day and results being announced, the more voter confidence erodes,” says Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation, a nonpartisan voting rights group that has lobbied to speed up the process.

“This invites false claims about the reliability of the voting process, even though we have the most accessible, secure and verifiable election system in the country.”

For years, the main actor behind these false claims has been the Trump White House, which has subjected election systems across the country to such relentless scrutiny that the integrity of the November midterm elections has been open to question.

Donald Trump has been particularly harsh on absentee ballots, which he blames for his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, repeatedly claiming, despite all the evidence, that California’s election results were bolstered by millions of illegal votes cast by non-citizens.

Republicans in California picked up on much the same theme, pointing out that the slow vote count was a symptom of what they saw as a broader voting conspiracy. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a candidate for governor, attempted to seize 650,000 ballots earlier this year to find evidence of Democratic malfeasance. (Slapped in court.)

Hilton, meanwhile, has embraced a ballot initiative that will go before voters in November and impose a strict voter ID and proof of citizenship requirement. Critics point to states adopting equally solid systems – Indiana, Ohio and others – and they say it’s a solution to a non-existent problem that will have a significant chilling effect on low-income and minority voters.

California’s procedures for handling absentee ballots are generally praised for the security measures they provide against fraud. Poll workers are required to compare the signature on each envelope with registration records and verify that no voter has voted more than once. If voters forget to sign the envelope or otherwise invalidate their ballot (as many do), they are offered a period of time to correct their mistake before their vote can be counted.

However, the rigor of the system also causes it to slow down. Alexander and other experts say most Californians don’t realize the headaches of casting ballots less than three days before Election Day. They are also often unaware that, in 26 counties, they have the option of taking absentee ballots to a polling station and having them processed and counted there; It’s an efficiency Alexander would like to see encouraged and expanded throughout the state.

Election experts in the state legislature sponsored a series of new laws, most of which passed unanimously; these laws tightened counties’ reporting deadlines, ensuring that all non-issue ballots were counted within that timeframe. 13 days Limiting the window to fix missing signatures and other errors, instead of 30.

But these new rules come without any added funding, and county election officials have expressed frustration that they are expected to do more with the same limited resources. Shirley Weber, California’s chief elections officer and secretary of state, opposed one of the new bills because she thought it was more challenging. too much pressure in the districts.

At the same time, his critics say he has done little to lobby to raise money for more poll workers and more efficient workplace systems. Weber’s office said he “emphasized” the need for significant resources for counties to enact the new laws but did not directly respond to the criticisms.

Some of the wealthier counties in Southern California, including Los Angeles and Orange, were looted additional money They have embedded themselves in the electoral infrastructure and seen remarkable improvements as a result. Los Angeles, whose 10 million residents exceed the population of 40 states, had counted only 77% of the votes a week after election day in November 2022. But two years later, with a brand new $10 million ballot processing facility, that mark augmented increased to 96.9%.

Alexander said such developments prove California can do better. “One of the challenges we face is the misconception that we have to sacrifice speed for accuracy, access or security. I believe this is the wrong choice,” he said. “We can have it all if we are willing to pay the price and work hard to achieve it.”