California’s election process is once again in the spotlight, as the state continues its painfully slow vote counting nearly two weeks after polls closed. With two critical House seats hanging in the balance, California has only managed to process about three-quarters of the votes so far. For a state that loves to lecture the rest of the country on democracy, the glacial pace of its electoral system raises some serious eyebrows.
While Republicans have already secured a House majority, Democrats are clinging to hope that flipping the two remaining California seats could shrink the GOP’s margin. The stakes are high; narrowing the Republican advantage would make it harder for Donald Trump’s America First policies to gain momentum in the House. Unsurprisingly, the Democratic Party is laser-focused on these races in a last-ditch effort to salvage some influence.
The two districts in question are California’s 45th, held by GOP Rep. Michelle Steel, and the 13th, where Republican John Duarte leads. In the 45th District, Democrat Derek Tran has been closing in on Steel, narrowing the race to just a 36-vote margin with 9% of ballots still uncounted. Meanwhile, in the 13th District, Duarte maintains a slim 1% lead over Democrat Adam Gray, with roughly 28,000 votes yet to be tallied. The snail’s pace of California’s vote count has left both races unresolved, prolonging the suspense for Republicans eager to solidify their majority.
The state’s vote-counting woes stem from its fondness for mail-in ballots, a system that proponents claim boosts turnout but critics argue is a logistical nightmare. Under California’s rules, any ballot postmarked by Election Day and received by November 12 counts. While this might sound like a noble effort to increase accessibility, the reality is a backlog of ballots that floods election offices on Election Day, causing significant delays. Add in the notoriously long lines for in-person voting, and you have a system that seems to embody inefficiency at every turn.
California’s love affair with mail-in voting began in 2016, when lawmakers allowed counties to shift to all-mail elections. This was temporarily expanded statewide in 2020 and made permanent for the 2022 midterms. Defenders of the system argue that it fosters voter participation, though critics question whether the trade-off is worth it. Democrat Assemblyman Marc Berman recently acknowledged the delays, claiming the system is a small price to pay for inclusivity. But for a state that takes such pride in its progressive values, the inability to count votes in a timely manner feels more like a feature of dysfunction than democracy. As the nation watches California’s electoral saga drag on, one thing is clear: the Golden State has a long way to go in cleaning up its act.
