San Mateo County used to pride itself on being the first in the state to report election results.
As of yesterday’s tallies, there are 44,000 ballots still to be counted, lagging next-to-last behind Riverside County.
And there we go, doing our share to fuel the growing national criticism that California takes too long to count its ballots.
The criticism is emanating not just from President Donald Trump, always eager to criticize California and to sow election uncertainty when he abhors the outcome.
No less than the venerable New York Times declaimed in an editorial this week: “There is no good reason that California takes so long to count votes.”
Well, jeez. Not one?
How about this: Vote-by-mail makes us better voters.
If counting votes takes longer than it used to, the trade-off is that we have 30 days to consider our votes. I cannot speak for everyone, although it could be argued that doing so is part of my job description. But I have found the extra time to review the ballot is valuable and improves the chances I will have some remote clue as to how I should cast my vote on some of these down-ballot races. Much better than head-scratching puzzlement in the voting booth.
We have been voting by mail here since 2015, after then-Assemblyman Kevin Mullin authored legislation to make San Mateo County the pilot.
In the old days, when we all voted in person and on the same day, San Mateo County would issue a “snap tally,” which had the appearance of definitive results. The “snap tally,” it turns out, was based on a sampling of tallies, and elections officials were pretty good at extrapolating the numbers into outcomes.
We also used to sign in at the voting place, and they had the records to verify on the spot if your signature matched the one on your voter registration form. When you fed your ballot into the voting machine, it was counted on the spot.
Now, we wait, as we have since we began voting by mail. It was jarring — even frustrating — the first time there was a close race and we had to wait days to find out who won. It still is.
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But at least we know what to expect: Voting by mail means a slower count. Factor in that you have people filling these things out at home, and the verification process certain to be more, um, complicated.
Elections officials frequently have to contact voters to find out what they intended, when, for example, they accidentally vote for more than one person for the same office, or simply fail to color within the lines.
In other words, it takes time to make sure the votes are counted accurately, which, NY Times notwithstanding, seems a pretty good reason to take time.
It is an upside-down premise — the faster the vote, the more credible it is. Fast may feel good, but is it really? Especially in these, mischief-laden and roguish times.
“What we gain in access and inclusion, we are losing on a longer tabulation process,” now-Congressman Mullin said via text. “And while I still believe California’s … model is a gold standard way to ensure access to the ballot, we must do better on speeding up the vote-counting process because it opens the door to conspiracy theories and lies about the results.”
In particular, as the Democrats try to take back the House of Representatives, we can expect Trump to step up his efforts to undermine voter confidence, and to cite the long counts as evidence of fraud, a claim that is itself a fraud.
And what is long? The final, certified vote count has to be completed 13 days after the election — by Monday, this time.
Mullin said he would support “surging resources” to county elections officials — more money to hire more people. It is not clear if that is a solution.
Elections workers are paid $24-$28 an hour, plus overtime, of which there will be plenty. But it is temporary, seasonal work, typically without benefits. Filling those jobs is always a challenge.
The Times proposed that no ballot be counted if it arrives after Election Day. I find it deeply troubling that someone’s legitimate vote might go uncounted. This would feel more like a fraud on the electorate than taking 13 whole days to verify and count every ballot.
In the end, 201,836 ballots were cast in the June primary, a turnout of 45%, which is higher than the 2022 and 2018 primaries.
The Times said vote-by-mail “fails to increase voter turnout,” to which I say, “Feh.”
(5) comments
Mark, in an era of instant response and rage online, I doubt that you will ever eliminate viral shouts of "conspiracy" about anything any more. Better that we encourage voting thoughtfully, even if it's slower. Mullin is correct. Trump and the influencers who thrive on controversy and anger are going to complain anyway. Let's not allow them to determine that the direction of our democracy is a poorly managed high school popularity contest. Or worse.
We now factually know that Democrats are indeed fraudulently voting, and if we knew that it was the republicans who were fraudulently voting then Mark, BC, Craig, etc... would be the one's shouting and asking for in person voting. None of you would know that this since you aren't interested in the truth. But this is my favorite line from Mark, " If counting votes takes longer than it used to, the tradeoff is that we have 30 days to consider out votes....much better than head scratching puzzlement in the voting booth." Mark, you may have blockheaded it out, but since you receive your ballot 30 days in advance, you and all voters can study, study, study and then walk into the voting booth armed with answers and ready to vote. No stress, no conundrums, no cheating.
That was the strangest comment from Mark. Did he hallucinate a time before universal mail-in ballots where we were handed the ballot at the voting center, having no idea who or what would be on it? We always got a sample ballot and voter guide in the mail pre-election!
Thanks for your column today, Mr. Simon. Nice try in attempting to reframe the issue, but no cigar. The fact that counting votes takes longer is not really the issue. The fact that voter fraud is occurring and there is no effort to root out the fraud is the issue. As long as there is voter ID, such as with the SAVE Act, you can take as long as you want to count ballots because we’d have confidence each vote tallied is a valid vote. With vote-by-mail and with voting without proper ID, not so much. I don’t blame Democrats for wanting lax voting laws because it is said that if Democrats can’t cheat, they can’t win.
I invite any readers, who wish to react, to take a guided tour of the Election Office headquarters and see for themselves the mess that we have gotten ourselves into. The paper mail in ballots must be sorted through sophisticated machinery that can tally votes at a very rapid clip. However, if any signature or marked spot is not clear or cannot compare with what is already recorded, each one of these ballots, and there are a few hundred thousand of them, need to be double checked, returned to the voter for verification or corrected by staff based on a hunch on what the voter probably intended. It is called adjudication. This system is so hocky and fraught with subjectivity, that even voters in Senegal would burst out laughing. We need to dump the mail in ballot system, except for the truly impaired, and get back to vote centers where signatures can be verified and entries are immediately corrected and tallied. With Canepa coming on board we can only keep on dreaming that our system will not remain the laughing stock of the world. This is another reason why the Mullins of the worlds should never have been elected. I worked there as a part timer and still maintain that we should not blame the staff as they do the best they can with a convoluted system that even a fourth grader would be ashamed of.
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