California likes to think of itself as a fast-moving state, but its pace can be downright plodding when it comes to counting votes.
If control of the House comes down to several battleground districts in California, Americans may have to deal with another Golden State slog because the results in close races could take weeks to sort out. The state has some of the nation’s most-watched House races, including five Republican-held seats that the Cook Political Report has called “tossups.”
One major reason: California sends mail-in ballots to all registered, active voters. Since election workers must examine signatures and open envelopes, processing each ballot requires additional time for verification.
California also has voter-friendly policies that allow for same-day registration and for ballots to be counted up to seven days after polls close as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. Voters whose ballots are ruled invalid are given extra time to show election officials why their votes should be counted.
And county elections offices, which handle counting in California, have some of the largest voter rolls in the nation. Los Angeles County has 5.7 million registered voters spread across a region that is larger than some states. Long ballots can add to processing times; this year, the ballot has 10 statewide measures and an array of local contests.
In tight House races, the outcome could depend on just a few hundred votes. If contests remain close in the days after the election, it can be impossible for campaign officials or news organizations to call the race.
Slow? Yes. Frustrating? Perhaps. But fair and methodical, too, said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who specializes in elections and politics.
“Everybody take a deep breath,” she said. “It doesn’t mean anything bad happened. In fact, it means something good happened. We’re taking time to do what we’re supposed to do, which is verify and count ballots.”
San Francisco has an extra hurdle. The city uses ranked-choice voting in candidate races, including the hotly contested mayoral race, and it can take days or weeks to determine the winner.
Voters can rank their preferred candidates in order. The candidate who receives the fewest first-choice votes is tossed out after an initial round of counting, and the next candidate still in the running on that ballot receives the vote. The elimination process continues until one candidate wins a majority. Many campaign officials in the city are not expecting a winner until late this week.
Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and the founder of an anti-poverty nonprofit, has been surging in recent polls after spending more than $8 million on his own campaign. Voters have given him higher favorability ratings, based on polls, and he may benefit from his strategic plea to voters to rank him second or third, if not first.
Based on recent polls, Mayor London Breed and Mr. Lurie are expected to be the final two candidates standing.
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