☆ Analysis: Lax voting options hinder speedy CA’n vote counting
California Policy Center’s Jackson Reese, and frequent Opp Now contributor, tackles the question of the hour post-election season: What on earth is holding back vote counting in CA? An Opp Now exclusive.
Opportunity Now: Why is it taking so long to count votes in local and statewide races?
Jackson Reese: In any state, running an election is a logistical nightmare. It’s like being an NFL referee; it’s difficult and unenjoyable, nobody wants to do it, and the only attention it ever brings is scrutiny. So of course, there are inherent logistical issues of an election involving six or seven million voters. However, California’s restructured voting system makes things take longer.
Because of laws that have changed how we run Californian elections, laws that have shifted how Californians can vote, we’ve sacrificed vote-counting convenience in favor of voter convenience.
Six or eight years ago, you’d walk into a polling place, they’d verify you hadn’t voted yet and are authorized to do so, then you’d cast your vote. While on the front end it takes longer to vote this way, it's easier on the back end — because every vote that’s “in” is immediately counted towards that candidate/initiative.
The way it works now in California, verification must happen after the ballots are collected. We’ve pushed collection dates so late (if postmarked to or before the election day, your ballot is counted even if it arrives seven days late). Each individual ballot goes through a series of verification processes (e.g., matching your signature with existing records). This is much more time-consuming than simply showing your ID in person.
States like Florida don’t allow these types of mail-in ballots. You must vote in person or request an absentee ballot ahead of time (which, if you opt to do so, means you’ll completed the authentication process well before you vote). And in Florida, absentee ballots must reach the Supervisor of Elections’ office no later than 7:00 pm on election day. It does not count if it is postmarked before and arrives after.
ON: Is it a valid theory that drawn-out vote counting impacts people’s concerns of foul play and other shenanigans? In other words, do these delays make it more likely that Californians question the integrity of our elections?
JR: A long vote counting period creates so much more space for people to question the authenticity of the process.
Currently, Californians have over thirty days to come up with whatever theory they’d like about the integrity of the results. This is much different, and potentially more problematic, than having just one night to doubt and raise questions about the election.
Now, to look at the facts: Nobody’s breaking the law that we’ve seen, except in very small cases involving bad actors who were then sentenced. However, we haven’t seen evidence of overwhelming fraud as far as counting the votes in California.
Notwithstanding this, states know what they’re doing with these types of lenient laws.
First, by making it more convenient to vote, they’re (particularly Democrats are) hoping to engage less energetic voters who may not otherwise come out for elections.
Second, this thirty-day window to vote means that campaigns are much more expensive. Thus, the party in power and with access to money will benefit from that.
Let me emphasize that these techniques are completely legal; nothing’s been “stolen” per se. This is just what it’s like to live in a one-party state. This is similar to how the Democrats do gerrymandering; when a state is a one-party state, it’s pretty simple for them to maintain that and keep things the same.
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