Democrat California Secretary of State Shirley Weber took to social media Wednesday to say the reason why the state takes weeks to process election votes is due to the fact that it would cost up to an estimated $110,000 in each county per election.
Among a handful of states that tend to lag behind in Election Day ballot counting, California took five weeks after the 2024 November election to officially count all ballots and declare results. With some legislators in the state signaling interest in speeding up the process, Weber posted on X why costs increase, saying faster results wouldn’t “increase accuracy,” but just make “it more costly.”
“To speed up the counting of ballots that arrive after Election Day and deliver a full same-day tally, one California county alone would need to expand to 950 polling places, driving costs upwards to $110,000 per election. Faster counting doesn’t increase accuracy— it only makes it more costly,” Weber posted.
In December 2024, Democrat California Assemblymember Marc Berman introduced AB5, which seeks to require election officials to “commence the canvass for an election no later than the Thursday following the election,” making it within 10 days of the election and additionally ensuring that the canvass is open to the public. With the legislation making its rounds on California’s senate floor, Berman has argued the need for a faster response time while making sure ballots are still counted “accurately.”
However, in April, Republican state legislators joined together to introduce the Election Results Accountability Act, sponsored by six of California’s nine Republican members of Congress. The bill, unlike AB5, would require California to count and publicly report a minimum of 90% of the ballots in federal elections within 72 hours of polls closing.
However, Democrats like Sen. Alex Padilla told The Sacramento Bee in April that the legislation from the GOP was “another Republican attempt to disenfranchise voters.”
“This is another Republican attempt to disenfranchise voters who cast legal ballots under California law. California has nearly 23 million registered voters, so it takes time to accurately and efficiently count the millions of votes cast each election,” Padilla told the outlet. “We must always prioritize an accurate count over a rushed process that may not capture the will of the people.”
Over the years, California has been plagued with issues like rising crime, an increasing homeless population and destructive wildfires, despite the Democrat-led state being one of the highest taxed in the country.
Now facing a $12 billion deficit, Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent $3.4 billion from the state’s general fund in 2024 to pay for an illegal migrant health care program, according to CalMatters. The outlet reported the administration not only overspent on the program by $2.7 billion, but that more illegal migrants signed up than the state had anticipated.
With the governor now reversing course on providing free health care to illegal migrants, the state has shifted focus to other projects like its infamous high-speed rail. In June, the California High-Speed Rail Authority sent a letter to the Department of Transportation demanding they walk back their threat to pull an estimated $4 billion from the state’s long-delayed project. Originally intended to be completed by 2020 for $33 billion, the project’s total cost has now surpassed $100 billion, with only a 119-mile initial segment completed out of the planned 800-mile rail line.
With one of the largest homeless populations among U.S. states, California has spent billions on the issue over the years, though no solution appears to have been found. A 2024 audit of the California Interagency Council on Homelessness found that despite billions being allocated, the state lacks “current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs.”
In addition to the state’s mounting problems, Los Angeles faced massive wildfire destruction in January, with officials like Newsom and Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called out for a lack of response and preparation. In February, Newsom asked Congress to approve nearly $40 billion in aid to help affected areas, with total damage estimates surpassing $250 billion, according to the Associated Press.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)
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