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Jun 26, 2026

California’s vote-counting nightmare laid bare in report — as key deadline looms

California election watchdog says state has nation’s slowest vote count process Email New York Post Read the Latest on Page Six

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California’s vote-counting nightmare laid bare in report — as key deadline looms

By Titus Wu Published June 25, 2026, 5:57 p.m. ET

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A new report Thursday by a California election watchdog blasted the state for having the slowest vote-counting process in the nation and revealed that the delays stem from fixable administrative bottlenecks.

The California Voter Foundation released its findings ahead of a July 2 deadline for counties to certify results from this month’s primary election, which attracted nationwide ridicule for leaving voters in suspense on who would win in the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral races days after Election Day.

“California has one of the most accessible voting systems in the world, but our long count overshadows our strengths,” said Kim Alexander, president of the foundation. “When results take weeks, it creates space for confusion and misinformation.”

California sample ballots for the Statewide Direct Primary Election on June 2, 2026, displayed on grass. 5
The cumbersome process stems from California’s outdated “bottom-up” voter registration system — a model only a handful of states still use. Weston Hancock/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
Election workers processing ballots at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center. 5
Much of the slow counting can be attributed to the state’s generous mail voting system. REUTERS

That frustration boiled over earlier this month when scores of Californians cried foul after mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt’s Election Night lead evaporated in the days that followed as officials continued tallying late-arriving mail ballots.

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Much of the slow counting can be attributed to the state’s generous mail voting system, which accepts ballots that arrive up to a whole week after Election Day as long as they were postmarked on time.

But the report revealed other causes of delay.

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