Why is it taking so long to get election results in close California races?
Why is it taking so long to figure out who won close races Tuesday night?
Seems like in the old days — as recently as 2018 — voters knew within 24 hours, if not the same night, the outcome of most congressional races. In the last midterm election, it was clear Democrats had regained the House majority by the time polls closed in California.
Not this year. Republicans needed five seats to run the House next and one to win the Senate, but it’s still unclear if they succeeded.
There were still dozens of races around the country whose results were far from final Wednesday afternoon, including at least 10 California congressional races. The outcome of all those races will determine which party controls the House and Senate next year.
The California Secretary of State’s office posted a big sign on Twitter Wednesday reminding readers, “Counting Takes Time.”
Tuesday, the office tweeted, “Today is NOT Election Results day. County elections officials have 30 days to process and verify all ballots received. The Secretary of State will certify CA election results by December 16th.”
Why is the count slow?
There’s no single reason things seem slow. Mail ballots are more popular, and they take longer to count. Post-election audits are also more numerous. Election officials, wary of challenges and controversy, are being extra careful.
And people are simply paying more attention. “No one paid attention in the past once a race had been called,” said Wendy Underhill, director of elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Once networks or news services called a race, interest waned. Now people can see instant internet updates and granular information about results in their cities and counties.
“Our expectations about quick data have changed,” said Underhill.
But there are a host of other reasons the count is proceeding deliberately.
The mail ballot deluge
Voting remotely is probably the biggest reason. In many states, including California, mail ballots only need to be postmarked by Election Day. California allows ballots to arrive in the voter’s county election office as long as a week later, and even later than that for military ballots.
“Because of the (Covid) pandemic, more people voted by mail,” said Susannah Goodman, director of election security at Common Cause. People liked the idea, and have often continued to do so.
Janna Haynes, Sacramento County public information officer, attributed the slow count to the thousands of people participating in the mail-in process. Of Sacramento’s 864,814 registered voters, only 21,116 of them voted in-person. “There are [voting centers] that only saw a dozen voters,” she said.
“Not only are voters really responding to the vote-by-mail option, but they’re waiting to turn in their ballots until the day before or on election day. Those two things combined drastically slow down our processes.”
Counting mail ballots involves several steps. There’s the need to verify the authenticity of the envelope the ballots have been sent in as well as the tabulation process itself.
“When we get a surge of 200,000 ballots in two days, we have to methodically work through them,” she said. Also, because Sacramento County allows same-day voter registration, there are hundreds of people showing up to register and then vote on election day. That also adds time to the process as ballots are coming in, Haynes said.
The slow vote tabulation
Other causes for a slower count:
▪ Provisional ballots. These are ballots submitted by people whose eligibility is in question. It can take days for election officials to determine if those people can legally cast a vote.
▪ Post-election audits. These have become more commonplace, and more closely watched, particularly since allies of former President Donald Trump questioned the validity of the vote count in 2020.
▪ Election officials. Once a largely anonymous position, they are now under far more scrutiny.
“Election officials have always wanted to be accurate,” said Underwood. Now that they’re being closely watched, ,”if it takes longer to get correct results, so be it.”
Exactly, said Sacramento County’s Haynes.
“We understand that it is frustrating for residents not to get results in a timely manner, and for candidates in close races to have to wait,” she said, “but we can all agree that getting accurate results is better than trying to get results out as quickly as possible.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2022 at 2:16 PM.
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