Election 2024: Why does it take so long for votes to be tallied in California?

The March 5 California primary is over. And now the waiting begins.

County elections officials across the state must certify the results of the vote by April 4, 30 days after the primary. Eight days later, the California secretary of state will certify the results.

In contrast, Arizona, which holds its primary on March 19, two weeks after California, will finalize its results by April 8. That’s 10 days faster than California. In Nevada, the entire process for the Feb. 6 primary election was 10 days.

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So why does it take so long for California to finalize election results?

First, the state has more registered voters than any other. But that’s largely because California makes it so easy for citizens to be able to vote.

“In the last three elections, six to eight times more voters voted on the mail-in ballot than in person,” said Stephenie Shea, San Bernardino County’s registrar of voters. “That requires additional time than in-person ballots.”

In the November 2022 election, 87.52% of voters voted by mail, according to the California secretary of state. In Riverside County, 90.11% of voters voted by mail in that election, 85.52% of San Bernardino County voters did so, as did 80.16% of Los Angeles County voters.

Voting by mail has been popular in California for years. But it got a big shot in the arm with the coronavirus pandemic. To avoid exposing voters — and poll workers, many of them older volunteers — to COVID-19, every registered voter in California was issued a ballot by mail. The practice continues four years later.

Ballots have to be postmarked by election day. It can take time for ballots to arrive by mail, especially when sent by Californians living out of state or overseas, such as military personnel. Ballots postmarked by election day are accepted as late as March 12. The secretary of state recommends military personnel mail their ballots weeks or months in advance. Those on a ship at sea are advised to return their ballots by Jan. 27 to make sure they’re counted in time.

But most people vote closer to election day. And that creates a bottleneck that slows the count down. According to the secretary of state, vote-by-mail ballots can begin to be processed up to 29 days before election day. But the results cannot be made public until after polls close on election day.

As of March 4, 135,603 had been returned to the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters — 11.63% of total ballots issued in this election. By 8 p.m. March 5, 268,724 ballots had been returned to Riverside County — 19.06% of the ballots issued.

Once the ballots arrive, local elections offices have to verify the signatures on the ballots belong to registered voters and that no one is voting twice. If there’s any question, workers contact the registered voters to confirm the ballot was really sent in by the voter. Some of that can be done by computer. But ultimately, a lot of humans are needed. And if there are possible issues at a polling place, humans are required to do hand recounts. That’s a process that can take up to 30 days, according to the secretary of state.

Provisional ballots are issued at polling sites when there’s a question about whether someone can vote at a given location. Those can also take longer to process. And Californians can register to vote on Election Day, which also slows things down.

Since the last election, the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters has tried to streamline the process to speed things along this year.

“We’ve purchased additional tabulators and we’ve also been able to employ additional staff to improve our processing time,” Shea said.

And those concerned about how this is all going to go and want to watch the election process are welcome to do so.

“Some members of the public are still asking about election security and election integrity and that’s definitely something on the forefront of everyone’s mind. But our job here is to run secure, transparent elections,” Shea said.

The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters, like other county election offices, allow visitors to observe the elections process, no appointments required. The entire process uses certified and inspected equipment and chain-of-custody procedures to document who has access to ballots at any given time. Riverside County and Los Angeles County residents can watch the vote being counted live online.

“Election security is our top priority,” Shea said.

More on the voting process

• Newsom signs bill to send all California voters a mail-in ballot for November
• Ballots go through increasing scrutiny as they’re counted on Election Day
• Here’s how ballots are counted in San Bernardino County
• Riverside County tested its voting system. Here’s how it did.
• Super Tuesday: How many states doing ‘all-mail’ voting might surprise you

Source: Orange County Register