Editorial: California officials need to speed up vote counts
Echoing Donald Trump, California Republicans now declare that basically any high-profile election they don't win is the result of fraud. It's understandable why state officials might ignore their sore-loser behavior, but they should nevertheless consider ways to improve the election system and speed up our excruciatingly slow vote counts.
When California decided during the pandemic to send every registered voter a ballot, it adopted deadlines that were meant to expand participation. For instance, any ballot postmarked on Election Day must be counted as long as registrars receive them within seven days. That's an overly generous deadline that assures a drawn-out process.
Californians can still vote in person or drop off their ballots without using the mail, so if they dilly-dally until the last moment, they wouldn't be disenfranchised. Some other states have similar deadlines. That could change pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Mississippi law allowing ballots which arrive after election day to be counted. If the court casts such rules aside as expected, it would be doing our state a favor.
Part of the problem is inherent in the system, as mail ballots take longer to verify and count than in-person votes. Vote by mail expands participation and is secure, but California needs to do a better job in implementation. Not doing so energizes conspiracy theorists who don't understand that shifts in the reported vote totals are normal - especially now that the sliver of people who vote on Election Day generally represent an older, conservative crowd.
Local election officials also legitimately complain that the state hasn't provided them with the funds needed to conduct a speedier count with additional staffing during elections and additional equipment. This is a fairly easy fix if people truly want speedier counts. Since the state has gone down the path of expanded vote-by-mail, it should ensure votes can be counted much quicker.
On the election integrity front, registrars need to do a better job cleaning up voting lists, so ballots aren't sent to addresses after the voter has moved. There’s no evidence that bloated voter rolls have actually compromised the election system in California, but they have given a lot of fodder to critics and skeptics who point to the arrival of ballots for people who don’t live at certain addresses as evidence in itself of fraud.
Even though MAGA isn't operating in good faith in its election claims, California officials can do a much better job counting votes. Given the persistence of conspiracy theories, that might or might not make them go away. But in any case, people shouldn’t have to wait a week or longer after election day to know the outcome of key races across the state. Better managed elections are ultimately in the best interest of our democratic system.
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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 10:02 AM.