What is the problem you are trying to solve? State explicitly the problem with it taking a week to count the votes.
And how do you propose it should be sped up? Now that you’d admitted that a week is a problem, you’ve given them free reign to “solve” it. Mail voting takes longer, and since longer is bad, no more vote by mail. Maybe put a limit that all votes must be counted by midnight of election night, and everything else is discarded. After all, taking a long time is a problem.
Everyone arguing that this is an issue should realize they are arguing this because Trump was ahead in PA on election night in 2020, but eventually lost. That is what started them pushing this idea that slow is bad.
In fact they would probably change from “the fact that it took so long is proof of election rigging” to “the fact that it was done so quickly is proof of election rigging”.
“Last time it to took 3 weeks to count all the votes, you want me to believe that they could do so now in 3 days? wake up sheeple!”
According to the State report on unprocessed ballots
The largest number for the past week was “Vote-By-Mail Ballots Received on or Before Election Day”. It would be understandable that they would not want to begin counting votes until the polls close. It seems like they could get a start on validation without opening the envelopes.
One problem we see sometimes in California is that the state will assign some task to the counties or cities but not allocate the money for it. The actual work of validating and counting ballots is done by the counties. Hiring enough temporary workers to get it done in the week after may be cheaper than trying to do it in less time or before the election when enough ballots to keep everyone busy may or may not arrive.
“It was happening to Steve Hilton, and I went on a tear,” the president said. “And they said it was going to be two weeks and they’d know about Hilton, whether or not he’s going to make it. I went on such a tear, then they approved it immediately. They approved Steve. It’s such a rigged deal, it’s so crazy. They approved him so fast because everybody was watching.”
So yes, fast or slow, it’s all grist for the disinformation campaign.
In my state, they start counting mail ballots at 7 AM on Election Day, which means the mail ballots are mostly counted 13 hours before in-person votes.
True.
We are dealing with a world that is not totally rational.
It is a judgment call whether slow counts help, hurt, or have no effect on the populist authoritarian cause.
I admit that any impact is marginal. And I also admit to not having political science evidence. So it’s pretty much a matter of opinion – my opinion being that slow counts are better grist for their mill.
I think those assholes will take any grist that they can get. It would be something else if the results were more prompt. As you said though, we can only speculate.
That is no reason at all. When has the job of a conspiracy theorist ever been difficult? When you’re unbound by facts, you just make up whatever you want.
The end goal of the GOP in pushing this “slow is bad” narrative is to reduce the number of “bad” voters, and preferentially count more “good” votes and fewer “bad” votes. They don’t give two shits how long the count takes. But raising a stink about the time gives them options for implementing their real goals.
If you’re willing to make concessions in the misguided attempt to go along with a conspiracy theory, you’ve already lost.
I think California should just double-down and not release any results until the final count is complete . Then said results should released at a random day and time chosen by a random number generator, so news agencies can’t predict it. Screw the Man!
I concede this. Greatly speeding up the California vote requires fewer votes counted. But who are these people going to be? It is last minute voters who didn’t follow ballot instructions, and so need their ballots cured after election day. And since Democrats are more educated and diligent, who are those procrastinators disallowed from voting because they ignored directions going to be? Disproportionately, Republicans! Give them what they want, and, once in a while, California Democrats will win a close House race that would have gone to the Republicans.
Counting early mail ballots starting at least a few days before the election (without releasing those results until after polls close) would also help. But changing the curing deadline is the big factor, and, sure, it means fewer votes cast. Defeating MAGA is too important to be squeamish about that. So long as the rules are consistent, I’m fine with it.
Dramatically speeding up the vote count would also send a message to California swing voters that the Democrats have basic competence.
Does anyone here propose that fast count states should adopt the California system? I’m not hearing that. Don’t you guys sense that California-style counting would hurt the Democrats in purple states? So I have to think this is about being unwilling to let MAGA have a win. Since it would be an own-goal win, give it to them good and hard.
It’s weird that people are trying to turn this into an argument about Trump’s lies, rather than an argument about whether it’s better for government to do things efficiently or inefficiently.
Even if reform attempts start now, it will take at least a couple election cycles to see significant improvement, so it’s not even a realistic way to rebut Trump.
In the last three cycles, the rest of the country has had to wait several days for California to get its shit together in order to find out who won the House. Do people have some legitimate need to know that information the day after the election, rather than the week after? No, but they notice that every other State is able to count much faster, so it makes California look bad, and California is closely associated with the Democratic Party, so it also makes Democrats look bad. No conspiracy theories involved.
California punches significantly above their weight in terms of food production and especially technological development and keeping the economy afloat than the rest of the country. So sorry that you have to wait two or three days more for election results.
California has already had these discussions. We have to balance voter access against election integrity against counting schedule against taxpayer expense. The current system is the result of compromising those.
My cite was this NYT opinion piece (paywalled, but you can see the relevant bit before the curtain drops if you read quick). On further review, it is using some weasel language and saying California’s slow count was the main reason for the delay in the results. Which may be true insofar as we would have known earlier if California counted at an average speed, but that would require a much more detailed and tedious look at the data to evaluate.
. Then said results should released at a random day and time chosen by a random number generator, so news agencies can’t predict it. Screw the Man!