California Is Still Counting Mail-In Ballots From Primaries Held Over Two Weeks Ago

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

California is still counting ballots from its primary elections that took place over two weeks ago.

According to CNN, which has published a live update of the results, numerous races still have tens of thousands of ballots to be counted and verified. The most notable of these two races are the Democrat and Republican presidential primaries, which at the time of writing have an estimated vote count of 95 and 93 percent respectively. 

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Meanwhile, other races including the House District 20 Special Primary have just 81 percent of the vote in, meaning there are also tens of thousands of ballots left to count.

California election officials may point to the fact that these races have already been called, but such failure to adequately complete the process may be a sign of things to come.

In the 2020 presidential election, allegations of voter fraud were mainly the result of the inordinate amount of time it took to count the ballots across numerous swing states, the majority of which eventually tipped in Joe Biden's favor by the tiniest of margins. 

The Federalist, which first reported on the ongoing failure, explained how a law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom concerning mail-in ballots is the principal cause of this delay: 

Like many states, California used the 2020 Covid-19 outbreak as an excuse to expand the use of unsupervised mail-in voting. In September 2021, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation making permanent the state’s policy of mailing a ballot to every entry on California’s voter registration lists. The law also mandated localities make ballot drop boxes available “up to 28 days before election day,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

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The report also broke down the other ways in which the system has been tampered with, thus turning an election day into an election month: 

Delayed election results also stem from California’s embrace of same-day voter registration. Those who register on Election Day are required to fill out a provisional ballot, leaving election workers to verify those voters’ eligibility in the days and weeks that follow.

California also counts mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by local officials up to seven days after the ostensible election date. According to The New York Times, election officials must also “contact the voter to give that person the opportunity to correct,” or “cure,” a ballot if their signature does not match the one on file with the state. Voters have until two days before the election’s certification to correct any errors on their ballot.

Not surprisingly, given such rules, officials are also allowed to take up to 30 days to count ballots in California. Democrats are fully exploiting such “election month” policies passed through the fully Democrat-run state government.

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It should come as little surprise to Democrats that Republicans are losing faith in a system that allows election officials to hold off on declaring a result for weeks after the polls close. 

If some of the poorest and most undeveloped countries in the world can wrap up their election returns within a couple of hours, so can all American states. Failure to do so will only keep damaging trust in an election system that tens of millions of voters are already highly suspicious of. 


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