Los Angeles County employees sort ballots on Election Day, November 5, 2024. It typically takes California weeks to count all general election ballots. Etienne Laurent/AP hide title
In California, it took election workers more than a month to count all the votes from last year's election.
Because election laws vary, some states are taking much longer to count than others.
But now, lawmakers in California and several other states, including Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Wisconsin, have expressed interest in fixing vote-counting rules to speed up the process.
It's a mix of states or divided governments led by Democrats or Republicans, and a key question is whether lawmakers can speed up the results without sacrificing access to the vote.
Some lawmakers and advocates say faster results will reduce the time misinformation about election administration takes hold.
But Arizona Sen. Warren Peterson said much of the call for change in the state comes directly from voters.
"I've never had so many calls or messages from voters about getting election results faster," he told NPR.
Peterson, a Republican, has introduced legislation aimed at speeding up the vote count - Senate Bill 1011.
"I think it increases people's confidence in the process," he said. "I think it also takes away the frustration of waiting for election results. It's very frustrating to get results so late in Arizona when they see the rest of the country has already announced results."
Because states have different rules and procedures for how elections are conducted and votes are counted, some states always take longer than others to count all the votes. (The Associated Press and other media outlets announced the contest before the final results were announced.)
Sam Orlick-Friedland, executive director of the Institute for Responsive Government, said the biggest structural difference affecting how quickly states report results is "the ratio of mail-in votes versus in-person voting at polling places." Unlike most in-person voting, mail-in ballots must be removed from the envelope and the voter's signature or other identifying information verified before being tabulated. Where and when those ballots are counted — whether at polling stations or central locations — could also affect the speed of the voting process, Orlick-Friedland said.
“The more mail-in ballots there are, the longer the results will take,” he said. “There’s also a trend that states generally have higher mail volumes the further west the U.S. goes.”
Pamela Smith, president and CEO of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan organization focused on election technology, said many states that need more time typically do so to give voters more opportunities to cast their ballots.
For example, these states often have longer cure periods that allow eligible voters who made mistakes to correct their ballots and have their votes counted.
"I think it's important to think about the balance between how quickly we can report results and how supportive voter participation is," Smith said. "So, for example, if you reduce the time voters have to resolve signature issues on their ballots so that they can Ballots were counted or determined not to be counted, so did you disenfranchise them in the name of 'we must know immediately'?"
Rep. Marc Berman, D-Calif., said the state is an example of a state that often takes weeks to count votes for good reasons. Registered active voters will automatically have their ballots mailed and can return their ballots within 7 days of the election as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.
"The reason is we don't want Postal Service delays to disenfranchise voters," he said. "But that means our county election officials have access to a significant number of ballots that, you know, two, three, four days after Election Day they have to process and count."
California still has a long healing period after mail-in ballots are returned.
Berman said he was "still figuring out the specifics of the legislation," but said he wanted to ensure a balance between "accessibility" and a faster process.
“I personally would never consider a proposal that would weaken Californians’ voting rights in exchange for things moving faster,” he said. “That’s not a trade-off I’m willing to make. I don’t think it’s a trade-off we need to make. "
Election workers from different political parties open and examine mail-in ballot envelopes inside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Elections Center in Phoenix on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images hide title
In Arizona, Peterson said he is looking to Florida as a model for how to count votes faster. In recent election cycles, the Sunshine State has been praised for reporting results early on election night.
Peterson said he met with Florida's secretary of state and staff to learn what the state is doing differently to potentially speed up the process.
Peterson said that first, he recommends that Arizona, like Florida, set a deadline on the Friday before Election Day for mail-in ballots to be dropped off at polling places. The law, if passed and signed by the Democratic governor, would allow voters to enter an election office, show ID and drop off their ballot there, but they would not be able to drop off their ballot at a polling place on Election Day, as they are currently allowed.
That's despite Peterson saying that "more than a million voters" in Arizona dropped off mail-in ballots at polling places between Friday and Election Day. To mitigate the impact on voter participation, Peterson said his bill would add two in-person early voting days.
SB 1011 would also eliminate the envelopes in which ballots are placed, allowing for faster processing of early in-person ballots. Peterson said removing each ballot from its envelope before counting them adds "up to two days" to the entire process.
Smith, who certifies votes, said ballot processing is an area of election administration that can be sped up but should not impact voter participation.
Orlick-Friedland said he also thinks changes to preprocessing rules could help speed up election results, but ultimately, he thinks it can be accomplished without changing policy.
“One of the best ways to really intervene in something like this is not necessarily to pass a new bill,” he said. “It provides more resources to local election officials across the country who are responsible for counting votes because all three of those things — personnel, space and equipment — cost money, and in many cases, election officials don’t have the money.”
Smith warned that, overall, there is no need to be increasingly concerned about the speed of election results as long as the results are available when lawmakers need to be sworn in.
"I don't think it's the most important thing. I really don't think so," she said. "I think the most important thing is transparency and making sure voters have all the options and, you know, all the opportunities they need to get their jobs done. I urge caution in changing policies to make sure they don't reduce opportunities for voters to participate."
Ultimately, Smith said, it's useful to educate the public about why counting votes takes time.
“I think the mindset needs to change,” she said. "Keep saying we won't know the results on election night. That's OK."