# Why is California Vote Counting So Slow?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-california-vote-counting-so-slow/773437>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [November 30, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-california-vote-counting-so-slow/773437 "2016-11-30T02:20:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-california-vote-counting-so-slow/773437/1 "2016-11-30T02:20:44Z")

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Simple question. Is there a simple answer? Election Day was three weeks ago, and vote tallying is still going on. What’s up?

I don’t like the Electoral college, but the agonizingly slow vote count makes me wonder if we might have to wait a more than a month to learn the winner, if we went by the popular vote.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-california-vote-counting-so-slow/773437/2 "2016-11-30T02:23:18Z")

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It takes a lot of time to count all those votes from illegal immigrants!

There’s an old adage that the work tends to fill the time allotted to it. Could it be that?

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**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-california-vote-counting-so-slow/773437/3 "2016-11-30T02:52:29Z")

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It doesn’t explain the whole delay, but CA allows late ballots. You can mail in your ballot and as long as it’s _postmarked_ by the election date, it’s considered a legitimate vote. That could add a few days at the least.

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**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-california-vote-counting-so-slow/773437/4 "2016-11-30T05:36:02Z")

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The California Secretary of State said today that all of the election counting computers are not connected to the Net. I don’t know if that might somehow be one reason.