More than a week after Election Day, California still has not counted 1.7 million ballots, Just the News reported. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber says she and other election officials "take pride in the fact we are not rushed" as congressional races remain uncalled.
President-elect Donald Trump is already making appointments, while other states like Florida have wrapped up their elections and counted every vote. Meanwhile, California has more than a million outstanding ballots, which fuels the kind of suspicions Trump has raised in the past about election integrity.
Rather than seeing this as a problem, Weber boasted about the snail's pace during a virtual news conference. "We take pride in the fact we are not rushed," she told reporters.
"We make sure every person who is eligible to vote gets a chance to vote," Weber added. However, it doesn't quite explain why so many ballots are uncounted so long after the polls have closed, especially since only 10% of the remainder are mail-in votes received after Election Day.
Such a slow counting pace has meant many congressional races throughout the state remain uncalled. This comes on the heels of some surprising results that are good news for Republicans despite the slow counts.
In the 13th district, GOP Congressman John Duarte picked up around 4,000 more votes to take a solid lead. Congressman David Valadao officially bested Democrat Rudy Salas in the 22nd district, meaning the seat will remain Republican.
The 41st District saw incumbent Republican Congressman Ken Calvert win over Democrat Will Rollins. In the 9th and 21st Districts, incumbent Democrats are still leading but barely in races that should have been a shoo-in for them.
Notably, Republican Congresswoman Michelle Steel’s race in the 45th District has narrowed, with her lead of nearly 4,000 votes whittled down to just 349 against Democrat Derek Tran. It's still a toss-up, with 7% of the votes remaining uncounted.
Although there are no credible accusations of cheating, this kind of slow counting does little to instill confidence in election results. However, California officials insist it is intentional to bolster voter turnout and accessibility, the Associated Press reported.
After the 2020 presidential election, California was still updating its vote totals until Dec. 3, meaning results weren't fully known until a month after the polls closed. Lawmakers believe this is a feature and not a bug, however.
The state has made many so-called improvements meant to encourage electorate participation that hinder prompt counting. Citizens are automatically mailed a ballot as the state increases to a completely vote-by-mail state, thanks to a 2021 bill authored by Democratic Assemblymember Marc Berman.
"Our priority is trying to maximize participation of actively registered voters. What that means is things are a little slower," Berman said.
"But in a society that wants immediate gratification, I think our democracy is worth taking a little time to get it right and to create a system where everyone can participate," he added. Each mail-in ballot must be separately opened, validated, and run through the counting machine, which adds time to the final vote tally.
These officials are taking their sweet time tabulating the election results. Even if nothing illegal or immoral happens with that count, the slow pace only adds to suspicions about the validity of the election.
