Ballots processed slowly as Californians await 36-day count

By Chris Woodward
The Center Square

It will be more than a month before Californians see the official results from Tuesday’s primary.

That is especially the case in the races for governor and mayor of Los Angeles.

According to unofficial results on Thursday, Republican Steve Hilton has a slight lead in the gubernatorial race with 27.5% of the vote, compared to Democrat Xavier Becerra’s 25.6%. Democrat Tom Steyer is in third with 19.8%. Hilton is advancing to the Nov. 3 general election, but the question remains whether Steyer will catch up with Becerra.

In the race for mayor of Los Angeles, Democratic incumbent Karen Bass hangs on to a lead with 34.97% of the vote compared to Republican Spencer Pratt’s 29.91%. Democratic Los Angeles Councilmember Nithya Raman is in third with 22.81%. Bass is advancing to the general election, and Pratt appears to be the one who will face her on Nov. 3, but voters are waiting to see if Raman catches up.

Mail-in ballots are still being counted, and the count will go on for another 36 days, according to the state Secretary of State’s Office.

The Center Square reached out to the office Thursday and requested an interview. In response, the office emailed a statement from Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who said, “Accuracy comes before speed. California is the nation’s largest voting state, with millions of ballots to process and count. Taking the time to do this work correctly protects voters’ rights and ensures the integrity of our elections.”

Sacramento political consultant Matt Rexroad said this cycle is particularly bad in terms of the number of ballots that still need to be counted.

“The number is larger because we had an uncertain gubernatorial race,” Rexroad told The Center Square. “Three or four weeks ago, everyone thought Eric Swalwell was going to be the next governor of California, and now he’s not even a member of Congress anymore.”

Swalwell, a Democrat representing the San Francisco Bay Area, dropped out of the race and resigned from the U.S. House amid sexual assault allegations.

Meanwhile, two dozen Democrats ran for governor in Tuesday’s primary. The total number of candidates was 61.

“Democratic voters in particular were holding their ballots until the very last few days, and so maybe hundreds of thousands of ballots were not even put in the mailbox until a few days before the election,” said Rexroad. “And we have 58 counties in California.”

To verify mail-in ballots, officials examine the name of the voter and compare the signature on the envelope containing the ballot to the signature on file. If those check out, officials open the envelope, separate the ballot from the envelope and count the votes.

That process is still underway.

“As long as your ballot is postmarked Election Day or before, and it arrives within days at the elections office, it counts,” said Rexroad. “So we have ballots that haven’t even been received by election officials yet that were mailed on Tuesday that may arrive next week, who are still going to go through the process of being counted.”

Rexroad added the state Legislature “has made it even more burdensome” because every registered voter in California receives a mail-in ballot.

Combine that with the extended period in which ballots are able to be received and counted, and you have a lengthy waiting game. To the tune of what’s now 36 days.

The Center Square asked if there is a better way.

Rexroad said people have suggested changing the law so that mail-in ballots must be received by Election Day.

“The reality is most everyone gets their ballots mailed to them about, you know, four weeks before the election, but that would be one way to go ahead and improve that process,” said Rexroad.

Rexroad said he didn’t think a current U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit over Mississippi’s late counts of ballots, Watson v. Republican National Committee, or any other state’s litigation would have any impact. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling is expected soon in the Watson case.

“The reality is I think that’s unlikely because we have used mail-in ballots for decades in California,” Rexroad said, adding what’s changed is that California mailing ballots to all registered voters.

“We used to have a process by which you had to have a reason to vote absentee. So, if you were going to be away, if you were traveling, if you’re a member of the military, you could vote absentee and be able to do that,” Rexroad said. “But now, it’s pretty much available to anyone to be able to vote by mail.”

Rexroad told The Center Square that his entire family voted by mail because it was more convenient than a going to a poll on Tuesday.

In-person voting in California is available for people who do not want to vote by mail. That includes polls on Election Day and voting centers that are open prior to Election Day.

President Donald Trump is not a fan of mail-in ballots or the vote count in California.

“The Dumocrats are at it again,” said Trump on social media, expressing his views by changing the spelling of “Democrats.” “They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES PRIMARY AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very latest and massive number of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”

The two Republicans Trump referred to are Hilton and Pratt.

Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, dismissed the president’s remarks.

“Trump’s baseless claims are the latest example of his rapid cognitive decline, or his go-to plan to change his losing streak,” Hicks told The Center Square, answering questions by email. “Everyone knows California will complete a fair and accurate count. End of story.”

The Center Square reached out to the California Republican Party for an interview, but did not hear back by press time.

Rexroad said Republican voters in California did not see many candidates from their party on the ballot in the blue state. As a result, Rexroad said, Republican voters filled out and mailed their ballots, whereas Democratic voters were delayed by choosing among many Democratic candidates. He said those voters faced a harder process and turned in their ballots after many Republicans did.

“They were trying to figure out who was going to be the candidate or the one who didn’t have a scandal or whatever, so they held theirs till the end,” said Rexroad. “The ballots you’ve seen counted already are much more Republican than these ones that are coming later. They’re all still totally valid, but the demographics of those ballots are just very different.”

Rexroad said he found it “predictable” that Hilton would have an early lead, a lead he believes will decrease over time because more Democrats’ ballots are being counted than Republicans’.

“That doesn’t mean that any of these county election offices are fraudulently putting out data about how people voted. It’s just that more Democrats are voting now or being counted than they were just prior to Election Day,” said Rexroad. “I know there’s going to be lots of conspiracies, but it really just has to do with the makeup of the people who are voting and when their ballots are being counted. It’s not election offices somehow behaving in any sort of election rigging or anything like that.”

Meanwhile, advocates for overseas active-duty military service members are concerned about the Watson lawsuit’s possible impact on their ability to vote, as The Center Square reported earlier on Thursday.