The California Post relates a joke told on social media about Donald Trump's Reflecting Pool. Ask a Democrat to fix it, and they're likely to respond, “We need consultants, historians, DEI aquatic equity advisors, a 9-month environmental impact meditation, and an interpretive plaque about water as contested space.”
Trump's response: “Is the pool f**ked up? Call some pool guys.”
California treats its vote-counting procedures in a similar fashion. No state is slower in counting ballots. In 2024, it took the state until Nov. 8, three days after the election, to reach 70% of the votes tabulated. "Across all 50 states, the average share of the vote counted by that date was more than 95 percent, putting California squarely in last place," reports Nate Silver. California didn't hit 95% of the vote counted until ten days after the election.
Since California is a one-party state, the networks and wire services call most races fairly early on election night. But close races are a different story. Two House races took weeks to call in 2024, and the race for the 13th district took a month.
California politicians don't seem overly concerned. Secretary of State Shirley Weber claims, “I know the value of being fast for some folks,” CalMatters reports. “For me, accuracy is far more important.”
Democrats say that California's slow-walking the counting of ballots shows how much they care about democracy. How touching. Meanwhile, confidence in the accuracy of the state's vote count undermines the integrity of the vote. When every other state in the union can count 90% of its votes in a couple of days and call almost every race on election night or shortly after, voters in California have a right to ask, What the heck is going on?
In fact, it's a simple explanation: mail-in ballots.
To be fair, there are real reasons why you’d expect California’s count to take longer than other states. One explanation you’ll hear often is that the state is massive. With nearly 40 million residents, California would rank as the 4th largest economy in the world if it were treated as a country. Los Angeles County alone has a larger population than 40 states. California also sends a mail ballot to every registered voter and most voters — about 80 percent in 2024 — do choose to vote by mail. Those ballots take more time to tabulate, in part because election workers need to verify that the signature on each mail ballot matches the signature on file for that voter.
Other states have massive numbers of mail ballots. Florida counts millions of mail ballots every election. The difference between Florida and California's mail-in voting is that Florida requires the ballot to be in the Supervisor of Elections' office by 7:00 p.m. on election day.
California? Not exactly.
And California is quite permissive about when those mail ballots need to arrive. As long as the ballot is postmarked by Election Day, it can arrive up to one week later and still be counted. That means election offices will be getting new primary ballots to count through next Tuesday. Those late ballots don’t just slow down the count; they can also produce strange-looking results with blue or red skews. In this primary, Democrats on average returned their ballots later than Republicans, so the first-counted results from Election Day and early mail ballots were significantly redder than the eventual final result will be.
There is a belief that the integrity of the electoral process is compromised. The suspicion is there and will not go away. The fact that California Democrats don't give a damn about the snail's pace of counting and the appearance of impropriety makes them even more suspect.
It doesn't matter if actual cases of fraud are rare. Polls consistently show that a significant majority of Republicans believe widespread voter fraud occurs, and can impact election outcomes. Concerns among this group frequently focus on mail-in ballots, illegal non-citizen voting, and a lack of strict voter ID laws.
On the other hand, a significant majority of Democrats express high confidence in the accuracy of election results. Most voters in this group believe that fraudulent voting is incredibly rare, and view concerns about widespread fraud as politically motivated.
Perception drives this issue. The perception that Democrats cheat in order to win will not go away, and California Democrats express no concern whatsoever that 40% of their voters don't trust them to play fair. It's a consequence of living in a one-party state that the radical leftists running California into the ground can ignore the opposition.
Mail-in ballots are a state issue. Until California is forced to reform its ridiculously lenient mail-in ballot rules, the integrity of the vote will be called into question.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
Help us continue to report on President Trump's successes. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member