California’s ballot counting process is facing backlash from The New York Times editorial board, which criticized the state’s ‘leisurely’ approach to vote counting. The state’s primary election was held on June 2, but ballots are still being counted.
Concerns Over Vote Counting
The New York Times editorial board argued that there is no good reason for California to take so long to count votes, pointing out that most democracies around the world count votes quickly. The board also noted that California’s reliance on mail voting and thorough review process contributes to the lengthy vote counts.
Under California law, every registered voter receives a mail-in ballot, and votes that arrive at election offices up to a week after Election Day are considered valid as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. The state also uses a burdensome process for confirming voters’ signatures.
Calls for Reform
The New York Times editorial board called for a national law to establish Election Day as the final day to accept mail-in ballots and for Congress to push states to count all ballots on Election Day. The board argued that California’s slow vote counting is a failure of governance and that the state should catch up to its own past, when vote counting was done more quickly.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office stated that the governor wishes the vote count moved faster, and he has expressed concerns about the state’s electoral process in the past. The state’s ‘jungle primary’ system, in which all candidates appear on the same ballot, may also contribute to the complexity of the vote counting process.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
