California races still take days to count, despite new funding

Final county results are due to the Secretary of State by July 3, and certification is scheduled for July 10. California counties had to count and report most ballots by June 15 under a new state law, and the state’s latest push still left the count stretched across a 30-day canvass and a $40 million funding boost.

California keeps changing as vote-by-mail, provisional, conditional voter registration, signature-cure, duplicated, forwarded and some late-arriving ballots are processed, so a primary can take days to settle. Los Angeles’ mayoral primary took six days to decide, and the governor’s race took seven.

Shirley N. Weber, the secretary of state, defended the accuracy of election workers and volunteers processing ballots, even as county officials pressed for more help to move faster. Under Assembly Bill 5, counties must count and report most ballots by the 13th day after the election, with exceptions for certain ballot types that require additional handling.

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, backed the state’s expansion of access and protections, but counties do not always get the resources needed to implement them quickly. Her group asked for $91.1 million in the upcoming state budget, including $55.5 million for staffing, equipment and office space, plus $35 million to promote early ballot returns.

Slow counts can feed uncertainty, conspiracy theories and claims of fraud when early leaders fall behind as later ballots are added. In the 2020 general election, major federal and state funding produced the fastest vote count of the decade and record-low rejection rates. In 2024, the Associated Press needed eight days to determine Republicans had won control of the U.S. House because outstanding California races kept the outcome unresolved. Assemblymember Marc Berman, a Palo Alto Democrat and former chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, has introduced legislation to help counties speed ballot counting and explore more funding.