Berman looks to expedite future election results in San Mateo County and state

“[Let’s] have some of those conversations, to see how we can create some uniformity across counties across California. Some counties do a great job, other counties do a lot slower,” he said. “If they need some resources from the state, I want to fight for those resources.”

In San Mateo County, 337,241 total ballots were processed by the deadline of Dec. 3, with 76.1% voter turnout.

Election results in the county will be formally certified Dec. 5. Elections officials did not respond to request for comment regarding the potential for a recount request in any race. One race — Redwood City Council District 3 — has remained tight throughout the counting process, with Isabella Chu coming out victorious over incumbent Lissette Espinoza Garnica by only 15 votes.

On a national scale, tight congressional races for California’s Orange County and Central Valley house seats have prompted some Republicans to make unfounded accusations of fraud as remaining votes are slowly counted.

California’s independent redistricting, accessible voting systems and vote-curing processes create competitive elections that might take more time to count than other states, Berman said. But standardizing vote-counting procedures statewide could help instill full faith in those systems, he said.

“It’s really unfortunate that people will use that to try to undermine Californians’ faith in the electoral process. … I find it to be terribly unpatriotic,” Berman said. “My hope is that creating some standards and metrics and increasing transparency in the process gives all voters — no matter what party you belong to — even more faith in the process.”

Berman plans to convene stakeholders — such as elections officials and voting advocates — in coming months to create best practices for ensuring certain percentages of ballots are counted as quickly as possible.

Based on those conversations, the bill would develop more specifics for elections officials if and when it’s signed into law.

“I want [elections officials] to give us a better understanding of if they need more resources, if so, what can we expect them to do with those resources?” Berman said.