This story initially was revealed by Real Clear Wire
By Susan Crabtree
Whereas most political strategists and marketing campaign operatives are lastly having fun with a post-election repose, making their favourite Thanksgiving fixings and making ready to deck the halls, California’s election officers and occasion leaders are nonetheless on the job.
As soon as once more this yr, California is the final state to complete its vote-counting, because of a set of vote-by-mail election legal guidelines the Democratic Social gathering’s supermajority within the state legislature handed starting final decade – purportedly to encourage extra voter participation.
However making it simpler to vote has include a value: The state is now a nationwide punchline for election inefficiency, and critics assail it as rife for fraud. As of Tuesday evening, two fiercely contested congressional races are hanging within the steadiness, and three state Meeting races stay too near name.
“We’re nonetheless working,” lamented Jessica Millan Patterson, who chairs the California Republican Social gathering. “Not simply as Republicans, however as Californians, it’s embarrassing that we’re the final state within the nation. We’re the house of Silicon Valley, and we will do higher. Florida has their elections tabulated in three hours.”
But three weeks after the election, there are nonetheless 109,485 votes to rely throughout 58 counties, based on California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. And even when all of the votes are counted, they gained’t be licensed till mid-December.
The principle cause behind the delays? The state sends a poll to each registered voter and counts all which might be turned in inside every week after polls shut on Election Day – even when the ballots don’t carry a postmark. All that’s required is {that a} voter “has dated the vote-by-mail poll identification envelope or the envelope in any other case signifies that the poll was executed on or earlier than Election Day,” based on California laws.
County election officers should full ultimate counts of all 15.3 million votes solid by Dec. 5, and Weber has till Dec. 13 to certify the outcomes. The overwhelming majority of California voters use vote-by-mail, which slows down the vote-counting course of.
“We now have to open envelopes, we now have to confirm the signature, and all of these issues earlier than we will truly settle for that poll,” Weber mentioned throughout a press convention the week after the election. “We now have to ensure that that’s the one that truly despatched the poll in.”
However that’s not the entire story. The later deadlines have led to slower counts, as counties with strained election assets don’t have any incentive to pay employees additional time to rely votes across the clock.
And annually, the state legislature passes extra legal guidelines lengthening the method. Underneath state legislation, counties should notify voters if their poll isn’t accepted due to a lacking or questionable signature to allow them to “remedy” their poll by signing a type verifying its authenticity. This yr, the California legislature prolonged the time voters should reply to the discover and return the signed type. They now have till Dec. 1.
Republicans, on a nationwide foundation, have ridiculed the method, arguing that the system is weak to dishonest. In addition they level to the state’s “poll harvesting” legislation, which went into impact in 2016 and permits any particular person to return stacks of ballots to an unattended drop field or county elections workplace. Earlier than that legislation, solely a member of the identical family might return a voter’s poll.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used the late vote-counting final week to take a shot at California, persevering with the heated rivalry between the 2 states – and between DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“California continues to be ‘counting’ votes — and there are two congressional races the place the leads loved by GOP incumbents have been both eradicated or dramatically lowered lengthy after Election Day,” DeSantis posted on X.com. “It’s attainable that Republicans lose one or each of those seats — making the Home majority razor skinny. California’s election system is a shame, and the state ought to observe Arizona’s lead, acknowledge the necessity for an overhaul, and enact clear reforms.”
However any efforts to hurry up the method are unlikely so long as Democrats preserve a supermajority in each state legislature chambers. The U.S. Structure provides states the facility to arrange and run elections as they see match, irritating Republican officers who should play by the Democratic-set guidelines even when they strongly disagree with them.
Earlier this yr, voters in Huntington Seashore, a conservative-leaning metropolis in Orange County, accredited a legislation requiring voter identification in metropolis elections beginning in 2026. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats within the legislature reacted to it by passing a legislation prohibiting native governments from adopting voter ID legal guidelines. California Lawyer Basic Rob Bonta and Weber additionally sued the town, arguing that Huntington Seashore’s requirement unlawfully conflicts with state legislation and impedes residents’ “proper to freely solid” their votes with out imposing what he known as a “hardship” burden on low-income voters, minorities, younger and aged voters, and folks with disabilities.
On Nov. 16, an Orange County decide rejected the lawyer common’s lawsuit, and the ruling might assist clear the way in which for Huntington Seashore and different cities throughout the state to implement ID necessities for voting. Bonta vowed to enchantment the choice, arguing that it didn’t handle “the deserves of the case.”
“We disagree with the court docket’s choice that it’s too early to carry our lawsuit and stay assured within the energy of our case,” Bonta mentioned.
Nonetheless, the court docket ruling is encouraging Republicans in conservative strongholds the place votes have little belief within the present election system.
“I’d be much more assured within the course of if we truly had voter ID,” Sen. Brian Dahle, who represents a largely rural district simply south of Oregon, informed RealClearPolitics. “You may’t purchase a pack of cigarettes within the state with out having an ID. It’s ludicrous to suppose we’re going to let individuals vote with out one. There’s simply a number of alternative for individuals to make the most of the system.”
For now, California Republican officers say they’ve little alternative however to play by the Democrats’ guidelines, making an attempt to make use of them to their benefit when attainable. Throughout Millan Patterson’s tenure, the state occasion developed a much more sturdy floor sport, creating a poll harvesting operation, scrutinizing vote-counting, and curing ballots after Election Day.
Over the past three election cycles, the GOP efforts to scrutinize vote-counting and remedy ballots paid off, however its effectiveness this yr continues to be up within the air.
In 2020, Millan Patterson mentioned the occasion had ballot watchers to watch 60% of all ballots. That yr, Rep. Mike Garcia, a Republican locked in a decent race for a seat beforehand held by a Democrat, beat his challenger, Christy Smith, by 333 votes. However this yr Garcia misplaced 51%-49% to George Whitesides, with 95% of the votes counted.
In 2022, the state occasion had volunteers and legal professionals scrutinizing 93% of all vote-counting. That yr, Republican John Duarte gained towards Assemblyman Adam Gray by 560 votes. In a rematch this yr, Grey leads Duarte by 182 votes, with 95% counted, as of Tuesday evening. Within the different carefully contested race in Orange County, Democrat Derek Tran leads GOP Rep. Michelle Metal by 613 votes, as of Tuesday evening.
Additionally, in 2022, Greg Wallis, a GOP candidate, was locked in one of many closest Meeting races in historical past. After almost all votes had been counted, Republican officers labored to remedy an undisclosed variety of ballots, and Wallis gained by 87 votes.
“In these sorts of extremely shut races, you’ve a number of scrutiny over these and protesting ballots,” mentioned Dahle, who’s term-limited out of his seat. His spouse, Megan, ran a profitable race to interchange him, successful 76% of the vote.
Nonetheless, there’s little doubt that the Golden State shifted decidedly towards Republicans this yr. Millan Patterson credited Trump with transferring almost each county throughout California to the proper, with a number of counties flipping from voting for Joe Biden in 2020 to voting for Trump in 2024. Each county additionally voted to approve Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime measure aimed toward strengthening sentencing after a decade of lenient prosecutions throughout the state.
The California Republican Social gathering coordinated with the Republican Nationwide Committee and county committees to deploy what she known as “the biggest election integrity infrastructure” the occasion has had. Republicans enlisted 1000’s of educated volunteers and extra attorneys to assist monitor vote-counting and remedy ballots in essentially the most focused districts. In complete, this group helped remedy roughly 3,500 ballots after Election Day, with most going down within the two most extremely contested elections, the Duarte and Metal races.
“We will’t change the principles till we get extra Republicans elected,” she mentioned. “Whereas it’s irritating, we’re going to proceed to do the work essential to remedy each authorized poll and ensure that they’re counted in order that we will have faith in these elections.”
First elected in 2019, Millan Patterson has labored to assist Republicans develop their very own poll harvesting floor sport, coordinating with church buildings and recruiting 1000’s of volunteers to carry barbecues and different occasions the place ballots are collected en masse and later dropped off at county election workplaces. Earlier than Election Day, Patterson mentioned the GOP collected 33,000 ballots by way of the trouble. It’s exhausting to check that with the Democrats’ efforts as a result of they’re extra tight-lipped about their ballot-harvesting outcomes.
Throughout Millan Patterson’s tenure, the occasion has added not less than 775,000 new Republicans to the voter rolls, gaining in each county and flipping two focused districts purple, after shedding voter registrations over a number of years prior. Ric Grenell, Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to Germany who’s into account to function his envoy on Ukraine, led a major registration drive by way of his “Repair California” group over the previous couple of years.
This text was initially revealed by RealClearPolitics and made out there through RealClearWire.
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ nationwide political correspondent.