CVF in the News

By Yue Stella Yu, CalMatters, December 2, 2024

Excerpt:

Today, a newly-elected class of state lawmakers was sworn into office — before their election results are certified. And in one competitive Assembly district, a leading candidate took office even though her race is still not called.

This is the reality under California’s notoriously slow ballot counting process — a process that one state lawmaker is vowing to change.

Assemblymember Marc Berman, a Palo Alto Democrat who led the Assembly Elections Committee from 2017 to 2021, is introducing legislation to help counties speed up the ballot counting process. He was also the author of the law that made vote-by-mail permanent in California.

The details of the bill are unclear, as Berman told CalMatters he plans to speak with county election officials about changes they wish to see and also explore the possibility of increased funding for ballot counting. 

By Daniela Pardo, Spectrum News, November 27, 2024

Excerpt:

Some critics say the state’s slow vote counting process leads to distrust, while supporters say there are several laws that county officials need to follow to make sure every vote counts.

“The key difference is that a lot of these places that people compare us to have just a one-day option to vote, where we have multiple days which is an advantage that others don’t have,” said Yolo County Registrar Jesse Salinas.

California is one of eight states that mails a ballot to every eligible voter.

“A lot of voters will wait until the last day on Election Day to cast their ballot and they will vote by mail or they will do it through this conditional process. So, what that means is we have to wait until after Election Day to start processing all of those ballots and that does take time,” Salinas explained.

By Anubhav Maurya, ET Now (India), November 24, 2024

Excerpt:

Elon Musk: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk praised India's election process, particularly the speed with which ballots were counted. Musk took to social networking platform X to share a message about India's Lok Sabha elections, where 640 million ballots were tallied within 24 hours.

He shared a post on X that reads, "India counted 640 million votes in a single day. California is still counting 15 million votes... 18 days later." Musk responded to this with, "Tragic."

Musk also retweeted another post with a headline praising India's efficiency and the message, "Meanwhile in India, where cheating isn't the primary goal of their election."

By Hanna Kang, East Bay Times, November 23, 2024

Excerpt:

Created four years ago to solidify the political clout of Little Saigon’s Vietnamese American community, California’s 45th congressional district has become one of the nation’s most narrowly contested House seats.

And with votes still being counted in a race that’s still too close to call, experts say the presence of a Vietnamese American on the general election ballot — a first for CA-45 — is a possible tipping point in a contest that could come down to a handful of votes.

On Friday, the latest tally in CA-45 showed Democratic challenger Derek Tran, a lawyer with longstanding ties to Little Saigon, with a 515-vote lead over Rep. Michelle Steel, a Republican from Seal Beach who is hoping to win her third term in office.

By Mackenzie Mays, Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2024

Excerpt:

Every election, the prickly Lake County registrar follows California’s litany of voting laws and certifies thousands of ballots by the time she is required to. And every year, people still complain.

“The state gave us a deadline; we meet the deadline,” an exasperated Valadez said from her small office in Lakeport as several staffers sat at computers verifying signatures more than two weeks after election day, when they had tallied fewer than half of the votes. “I just don’t understand— why do we need to rush?” 

In a state known for its slow processing of election results, Lake County, with only about 38,000 voters, is often the slowest of all.

Ballots ready for processing at the Lake County registrar’s office in Lakeport.

By Molly Burke, Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, November 21, 2024

Excerpt:

Christine Pelosi is one of many Bay Area volunteers who have headed to the Central Valley to “cure” ballots in an incredibly tight House race. On Wednesday afternoon, after a few days of volunteering in the Merced area, she was “staking out” a Modesto home with a colleague, hoping to connect with a voter whose ballot was rejected over a signature problem, she told the Chronicle.

Pelosi, the daughter of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and a longtime California Democratic Party leader who is widely thought to be eyeing her mother’s seat when she retires, posted about her effort, including a video of her singing “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson, though with a ballot curing lyrical twist. 

She is part of a broader effort by both campaigns in the House race to fix problems with voters’ ballots that will allow them to be counted before the Dec. 3, deadline.

By Yue Stella Yu, Cal Matters, November 20, 2024

Excerpt:

California has a notoriously slow ballot counting process — one that Kim Alexander describes as “a pig in the python.”

“This giant wad of ballots that all arrive at once, that all have to move through the process, and you can’t speed it up,” said Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. “You have to do every single step, otherwise you lose the integrity of the process.”

To help voters understand and trust that process, Alexander’s group launched a tracker this election that is monitoring the vote count in California’s close contests between Election Day and certification of county results.

Dispelling misinfo about length of tally

By Yue Stella Yu, CalMatters, November 20, 2024

Excerpt:

The Close Count Transparency Project: is a tracker created by the California Voter Foundation that provides daily updates on the results of 11 competitive U.S. House races and seven state legislative races, as well as the statewide vote count status. The tool tracks candidates’ vote share, votes counted and the number of unprocessed ballots in each county the districts cover. 

Why so slow? With a huge influx of ballots arriving all at once, they all must move through every step of the counting process that cannot be sped up. For example, in this past election cycle, more than 126,000 ballots in California needed to be “cured” — they had been rejected for missing or mismatched signatures and voters have time to submit a form to verify their signatures. The widespread use of vote-by-mail also slows the vote count.

By Jason Henry, Pasadena Star News, November 16, 2024

Excerpts:

More than 11 days after polls closed around the nation and Donald Trump was declared president-elect of the United States, California is still moving methodically through roughly 800,000 uncounted ballots that are holding up final tallies in several contests.

As of Saturday, Nov. 16, two congressional races — including a local matchup between Republican Michelle Steel and Democrat Derek Tran in the 45th Congressional District, who are separated by just 58 votes — remained too close to call. Those races could play key roles in whether Republicans are able expand their new majority in the House, yet it could be days, or even weeks, until clear winners emerge.

By Yue Stella Yu, Cal Matters, November 13, 2024

Excerpt:

In 2020, California Democrats lost four of the seven competitive congressional seats they had just gained amid a “blue wave” two years earlier. In 2022, Republicans gained one more seat in California and took control of the U.S. House.

This election, it is Republicans who must play defense.

From the Central Valley to southern California, Democrats are fighting to flip five GOP-held seats in the state’s most competitive contests. They are also aiming to keep a competitive seat now held by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who has narrowly won the district for three terms and is not seeking re-election this year.

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