Can we speed up California’s vote count already?

Why the heck does it take California so long to count ballots?

That’s a question Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, has been answering ad nauseam for years. Ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, I joined the chorus, and, well, asked her again.

“I have been giving interviews about the long vote count for a decade now,” Alexander told me with a laugh. “It’s long past time for just explaining it and time to start addressing it.”

Election watchdogs have urged patience for the results of this week’s primary, which includes tight races for governor and Los Angeles mayor, and they have stressed that the slow count points not to problems or fraud, but to an accurate tally.

“We allow people lots of different avenues to vote, and as a result it takes longer to count up all the votes,” Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University, told my colleague Grace Toohey. “And that’s how it should be. ... It’s an argument in favor of making sure the process runs correctly — not quickly.”

Alexander believes votes can — and should — be counted faster. A slow tally, she said, “undermines voter confidence,” leads to “unfair criticism” of local elections officials and volunteers, and invites conspiracy theories and misinformation about the holdup, she said.

OK, but really, why does it take so long?

There are a lot of ballots cast. In November 2024, more than 16 million Californians voted. That’s more than the population of all but 10 states, Times columnist Mark Z. Barabak has noted.

Voting by mail exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the state began automatically mailing ballots to every active registered voter. Californians overwhelmingly vote by mail — more than 80% did so in the November 2024 election — and those ballots take longer to receive, verify and count than in-person ballots.

Ballots postmarked on or before election day can be accepted by county elections offices for up to seven days. Mail-in ballots must be inspected and have signatures verified, and if hundreds of thousands arrive on or just after election day, it can create a bottleneck that Alexander calls the “pig-in-the-python” effect, with a huge wad of ballots slowly moving through the system.

Further delaying the process: If a voter’s signature is missing from a mailed ballot or doesn’t match the signature on file, elections officials are required by law to notify the voter and give them a chance to fix the problem.

In recent elections, according to the California Voter Foundation, tens of thousands of votes have gone uncounted due to signature issues, including 84,737 in November 2024 — 0.6% of all mail ballots cast.

Can we speed things up?

The California Voter Foundation has been pushing numerous recommendations for speeding up and improving the tally. They include:

• Increasing state funding for California’s 58 often underfunded county elections offices to expand equipment, staff and space to process ballots. “Unfortunately, the local election officials who are on the front line of the ballot count get the brunt of the criticism,” Alexander said. “It’s unfair criticism because they’re doing their job with the resources and under the rules that the state has provided.”
  
• A text message-based curing system for missing or mismatched signatures on mailed ballots. The California Voter Foundation has co-sponsored Assembly Bill 2604 by Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), which would give all California voters access to the technology that has been rolled out in some counties.
  
• Encouraging voters to turn their ballots in earlier. The CVF has called for state funding for voter education and campaigns to encourage residents to mail their ballots in sooner.
  
• Creating more in-person voting options. The organization also is promoting wider use of a system called “sign, scan & go,” which allows voters to turn in their vote-by-mail ballots in person at a designated vote center and to have them scanned and counted on site rather than dropping them off for processing later at the elections office. A pilot program in Placer County found that it cut down processing time by three to four days.

Today’s top stories

Mayor Karen Bass speaks at her election party on Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in Los Angeles.

(Carlin Stiehl/For The Times)

California election 2026

• With about 58% of votes counted, Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra continue to hold leads.
• L.A. Mayor Karen Bass makes the Nov. 3 runoff while Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman fight for second place.
• California congressional race results threaten GOP power in D.C.
• Read more of our election results coverage here.

L.A. Rep. Jimmy Gomez under investigation for sexual assault

• The Democratic representative is reportedly under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over sexual misconduct allegations.
• In a statement to CNN, Gomez acknowledged making “personal mistakes” outside his marriage and apologized to his family.

Caltech could lose control of JPL

• NASA will for the first time seek outside bids to run JPL, putting Caltech’s eight-decade stewardship at risk and raising questions about the lab’s identity and future.
• JPL’s supporters fear a politically motivated shake-up by a Trump administration that has repeatedly squeezed science funding.

What else is going on

• A California man attempted to board a plane with an explosive device, 5 phones and a very ominous text.
• A rent-hike ban to protect fire victims ends despite gouging concerns.
• SoFi Stadium workers will vote on whether to authorize a strike with the World Cup looming.
• A gender reveal sparked a massive blaze. Now 3 companies will pay for their role in the El Dorado fire.
• Peabo Bryson, R&B singer known for Disney classics, has died at 75.

This morning’s must-read

World & Nation

The U.S. is investigating two more Mexican governors for connections to cartels

The U.S. investigation into two Mexican governors suspected of working with organized crime threatens to deepen a growing rift between the U.S. and the Sheinbaum government.

June 3, 2026

For your downtime

The chicken curry and pakoda bread dish from Leo Market in Echo Park.

(Joshua Cullen / For The Times)

Going out

• Restaurants: An Indian food gem flourishes inside this Echo Park convenience store.
• Theme parks: How Disneyland became SoCal’s unlikely gateway to tiki culture.

Staying in

• Television: In Hulu’s “Not Suitable for Work,” Mindy Kaling takes on the “many highs and lows” of her 20s.
• Books: Here are 10 books to read in June, including new page-turners from Dave Eggers, James Ellroy and more.
• Recipe: Here’s a recipe for Osteria Mamma’s “midnight spaghetti.”
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games.

A question for you: What’s your favorite summer beach getaway?

Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally ... your photo of the day

Hoover Dam is decorated with an enormous illuminated flag as a salute to the nation’s 250th anniversary. The flag went up on Memorial Day, was lowered because of gusting winds, then went up again Friday.

(Michael Bittle)

Today’s great photo is from Times contributor Michael Bittle at the Hoover Dam, which now wears a U.S. flag the size of a football field.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Hailey Branson-Potts, staff writer
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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