California could be forced to wait for results thanks to slow vote-counting system

California’s primary elections, including its fiercely fought gubernatorial contest, will be at the mercy of a notoriously slow vote-counting system after the polls close on Tuesday, and it could be days or even weeks before the outcomes of the tightest races become clear. Voting experts expect the state’s 58 county elections offices to be deluged with last-minute absentee ballots, as they have been in the last few election cycles, and spend weeks undertaking a painstaking ballot-by-ballot verification process. That presents a procedural problem whenever races are close, as they tend to be in the state’s most competitive congressional districts, and the whole country is left waiting – as it was in 2020, 2022 and 2024 – to find out which party controls the House of Representatives. It is also a political headache worrying everyone from Gavin Newsom , the state’s outgoing Democratic governor, to an aggrieved Republican party that has not won statewide office for 20 years and has become increasingly bold about accusing its political opponents of playing dirty, even without evidence. In the 2024 presidential election, more than 25% of California’s vote total arrived too late to be counted by election day. …