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California takes longer to count election ballots than just about any other state. This has some lawmakers looking for ways to speed up the state’s often-criticized tally process. 

Democratic Assemblymember Marc Berman of Palo Alto believes his Assembly Bill 5 is a good start.

“My goal is to establish a framework where we can say, ‘Okay 95% of ballots will be counted by X day,’ Berman explained.“And the results from counting that 95% will probably give us the winners and losers in 98% of the races across the state.” 

Berman, who used to chair the Assembly Elections Committee, said this would provide much needed certainty for the public, elections officials, and candidates.

“We won't every two years be talking about, ‘Oh my gosh, why is it taking so long to count ballots?’” Berman added. “But we'll actually have some metrics and expectations for … when a certain percentage of ballots will be counted and then I do think that will strengthen our democracy."

But as this debate unfolds in the state legislature, some voting rights advocates and election officials are wondering if a speedier process could come at a cost.

California takes longer to count ballots for a reason — multiple reasons, actually. These all aim to make voting more accessible.

California’s an all vote-by-mail state, so every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail no matter what. That was established during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic through legislation Berman authored.

As long as ballots are postmarked on or before election day, state law provides a seven day grace period for them to show up at county elections offices. If something doesn’t look right, like a mismatched signature, voters have until 26 days after the election to fix their ballot and still have it counted.

All these steps mean California’s vote-by-mail ballots take longer to process. 

This is one reason Kim Alexander with the California Voter Foundation says the state should rethink its all vote-by-mail policy.

“One way to accelerate the vote count is to change the ratio of ballots that are coming in as in person ballots versus vote-by-mail ballots and we can do that by trying to be a little more precise with voters when we send out those ballots,” Alexander said.

But this could be a trade off.

Dr. Mindy Romero heads the Center for Inclusive Democracy. Romero is a nonpartisan researcher who doesn't take positions on bills, but said lawmakers should think hard before upending the state’s voting system.

“The vast majority of races in California were called, if not on election night, very soon after election night and so I think we also have to be talking about what are we trying to solve?” Romero said. (Full Story)