As crucial Senate races in the East have settled, the country has cast its eyes on Arizona, Nevada and California as Americans wait to see which party will control Congress, lead the Senate and the House of Representatives.
While major Senate races are garnering most of the national media attention, California has tight House and local races that could take days or even weeks before the results are announced.
With the introduction of statewide measures to make voting easier for California citizens over the past two decades, it takes longer to count all the votes.
Since 2015, a state law has permitted any mail-in ballot postmarked by Election Day to be counted as long as it arrives by the following Friday, meaning California will not even receive all eligible votes until the end of the day Friday. And as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, even more voters are using mail-in ballots.
Kamy Akhavan, director of USC’s Center for the Political Future, said that the proliferation of mail-in ballots is the exact reason California’s elections require more time to decide.
“California uses mail-in ballots, and those ballots are not counted until and starting on election day itself,” Akhavan said. “That means that all the ballots that have yet to arrive over the coming days and that are still postmarked on or before November 8 will take time to count. Most other states do not have 100% mail-in ballots and many other states unlike California start counting their mailed-in ballots as they are received rather than after the election.”
According to a poll conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, California voters do not mind the longer wait times as long as they have multiple opportunities to cast their ballot. The poll found that 64% of voters can tolerate the delay in results provided the state keeps their voting options open.
In Los Angeles, the hotly-contested mayoral race between Rick Caruso and Karen Bass could take weeks to determine. The latest update from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office came Wednesday morning. With 44% of votes counted, Caruso held a 51.2% majority to Bass’s 48.8%.
The office will not provide another update until Friday, November 11 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The next update comes Tuesday, November 15 during the same time frame. From there, additional updates will continue on the same Friday-Tuesday schedule.
Elsewhere in Southern California, there will likely be similar delays in calling some of the closer House races. In a particularly close race in California District 47, Democrat Katie Porter leads Scott Baugh 50.3% to 49.7% with a difference of just under 1,000 votes. The Orange County district was redrawn ahead of this race, and experts anticipate it to lean slightly Democratic.
Incumbent Representative Mike Levin leads District 49, which splits both southern Orange County and San Diego County, 51% to 49% with 46% of votes counted. In the Orange County portion of the district, Levin’s Republican challenger Brian Maryott leads 56% to 44%.
At the state level, the Associated Press called the Senate race in favor of Democratic Incumbent Alex Padilla, the former California Secretary of State running for a full-term after being appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to replace former Sen. Kamala Harris when she became Vice President of the United States.