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 12 months, California is the final state to complete its vote-counting, due to a set of vote-by-mail election legal guidelines the Democratic Get together’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 stability, and three state Meeting races stay too near name.
“We’re nonetheless working,” lamented Jessica Millan Patterson, who chairs the California Republican Get together. “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 are able to 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, in keeping with 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 motive behind the delays? The state sends a poll to each registered voter and counts all which are 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,” in keeping with California rules.
County election officers should full remaining counts of all 15.3 million votes forged 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’ve got to open envelopes, we’ve got to confirm the signature, and all of these issues earlier than we are able to really settle for that poll,” Weber mentioned throughout a press convention the week after the election. “We’ve got to make it possible for that’s the one who really 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. Below state regulation, 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 kind verifying its authenticity. This 12 months, the California legislature prolonged the time voters should reply to the discover and return the signed kind. They now have till Dec. 1.
Republicans, on a nationwide foundation, have ridiculed the method, arguing that the system is susceptible to dishonest. In addition they level to the state’s “poll harvesting” regulation, 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 regulation, 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 decreased lengthy after Election Day,” DeSantis posted on X.com. “It’s doable 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 comply with 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 keep 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 12 months, voters in Huntington Seashore, a conservative-leaning metropolis in Orange County, accredited a regulation requiring voter identification in metropolis elections beginning in 2026. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats within the legislature reacted to it by passing a regulation prohibiting native governments from adopting voter ID legal guidelines. California Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta and Weber additionally sued town, arguing that Huntington Seashore’s requirement unlawfully conflicts with state regulation and impedes residents’ “proper to freely forged” their votes with out imposing what he referred to as a “hardship” burden on low-income voters, minorities, younger and aged voters, and other people with disabilities.
On Nov. 16, an Orange County choose rejected the lawyer basic’s lawsuit, and the ruling might assist clear the best way 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 deal with “the deserves of the case.”
“We disagree with the court docket’s choice that it’s too early to convey our lawsuit and stay assured within the power 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 really 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 whole lot of alternative for individuals to reap the benefits 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 doable. Throughout Millan Patterson’s tenure, the state occasion developed a much more strong floor recreation, growing a poll harvesting operation, scrutinizing vote-counting, and curing ballots after Election Day.
During the last three election cycles, the GOP efforts to scrutinize vote-counting and remedy ballots paid off, however its effectiveness this 12 months continues to be up within the air.
In 2020, Millan Patterson mentioned the occasion had ballot watchers to watch 60% of all ballots. That 12 months, Rep. Mike Garcia, a Republican locked in a good race for a seat beforehand held by a Democrat, beat his challenger, Christy Smith, by 333 votes. However this 12 months Garcia misplaced 51%-49% to George Whitesides, with 95% of the votes counted.
In 2022, the state occasion had volunteers and attorneys scrutinizing 93% of all vote-counting. That 12 months, Republican John Duarte gained towards Assemblyman Adam Gray by 560 votes. In a rematch this 12 months, Grey leads Duarte by 182 votes, with 95% counted, as of Tuesday evening. Within the different intently 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 practically all votes have been counted, Republican officers labored to remedy an undisclosed variety of ballots, and Wallis gained by 87 votes.
“In these kinds of extremely shut races, you’ve got a whole lot 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 exchange him, successful 76% of the vote.
Nonetheless, there’s little doubt that the Golden State shifted decidedly towards Republicans this 12 months. Millan Patterson credited Trump with shifting practically each county throughout California to the best, 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 Get together coordinated with the Republican Nationwide Committee and county committees to deploy what she referred to 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 workforce 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 make it possible for they’re counted in order that we are able to trust in these elections.”
First elected in 2019, Millan Patterson has labored to assist Republicans develop their very own poll harvesting floor recreation, 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 places of work. Earlier than Election Day, Patterson mentioned the GOP collected 33,000 ballots via the hassle. 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 at the least 775,000 new Republicans to the voter rolls, gaining in each county and flipping two focused districts pink, after dropping 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 big registration drive via 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.
