By MAYA SWEEDLER
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the 2020 presidential election, Florida released results within hours of polling closing for more than 99% of the ballots cast.
In California, nearly a third of ballots were not counted after election night. The state updated its tally almost daily through Dec. 3, a full month after Election Day.
This was neither unusual nor unexpected.
California, the nation’s most populous state, is consistently among the slowest to release all of its election results. Florida, the third most populous state, is usually among the first to finish.
The Constitution sets out the broad principles for electing a national government and leaves the details to the states. The choices state lawmakers and election officials make as they sort out these details affect everything from how voters vote, how quickly results are tabulated and released, how elections are secured, and how whose officials maintain voter confidence in the process. .
The gap between when California and Florida are able to finalize their counts is the natural result of election officials in the two states choosing to emphasize different concerns and set different priorities.
How California Matters
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California lawmakers designed their elections to improve accessibility and increase participation. Whether it’s automatically receiving a ballot at home, having until Election Day to turn it in, or having several days to resolve any issues that may arise with their ballot, Californians have plenty of time and opportunity to vote. This comes at the expense of knowing that the final vote counts shortly after the polls close.
“Our priority is to try to maximize participation among actively registered voters,” said Democratic Assemblyman Marc Berman, author of the 2021 bill that shifted the state permanently to all-mail elections. “That means things are a little slower. But in a society that wants instant gratification, I think our democracy is worth taking some time to get right and create a system in which everyone can participate.
California, which has long had a vote-by-mail culture, began moving toward all-mail elections last decade. Mail-only systems will almost always extend the countdown. Mail-in ballots require additional verification steps — each must be opened individually, validated and processed — so they may take longer to tabulate than ballots cast in person that are then fed into a scanner at a neighborhood polling station.
In 2016, California passed a bill allowing counties to participate in mail-in elections before instituting it statewide on a temporary basis in 2020 and enshrining it into law in time for the 2022 elections.
Studies have shown that the first states to implement mail-in elections – Oregon and Washington – had higher voter turnout. Mail-in ballots also increase the likelihood that a voter will cast a completed ballot, according to Melissa Michelson, a political scientist and dean of Menlo College in California who has written about voter mobilization.
In recent years, the thousands of California voters who cast their mail-in ballots on Election Day created a bottleneck on Election Night. In the last five general elections, California received an average of 38% of its votes after Election Day. Two years ago, during the 2022 midterm elections, half of the state’s votes were counted after Election Day.
Slower counts were accompanied by later absentee ballot deadlines. In 2015, California imposed its first postmark deadline, meaning the state can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day provided the Postal Service receives the ballot. vote before election day. Berman said the postmark deadline allows the state to treat the mailbox like a drop box to avoid punishing voters who cast their ballot correctly but are affected by postal delays.
Initially, the law stated that ballots arriving within three days of the election would be considered cast on time. This year, ballots may arrive up to a week after Election Day, so California won’t know how many ballots were cast until November 12. This deadline means California will count ballots through at least this week, as ballots arrive until November 12. this point could still be valid and added to the count.
How Florida Matters
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Florida’s election system is focused on quick and efficient tabulation. Coming off the disastrous 2000 presidential election, when the United States Supreme Court settled a recount dispute and George W. Bush was declared the winner in the state over Al Gore, the state decided to standardize its electoral systems and clean up its polling, or the process of confirming votes cast and counted.
Republican Rep. Bill Posey, who as a state senator was the sponsor of the Florida Election Reform Act of 2001, said the law’s two goals — counting all legal votes and ensuring voters are sure their votes are counted – were achieved by mandating optical ballot scanners in every precinct. This “most significant” change means there will be no more “suspended children” in Florida. The scanners read and aggregate results from paper ballots, immediately rejecting those with errors.
Florida’s deadlines are set to prevent ballots from arriving later than when officials hit “Go” on the tabulators. The state imposes a receipt deadline for its mail-in ballots, meaning that ballots that do not arrive by 7 p.m. local time on Election Day are not counted, regardless of when they are. which they were sent.
Michael T. Morley, a professor of election law at Florida State University School of Law, noted that Florida election officials could begin processing ballots, but not counting them, before the close of elections. polling stations. This helps speed up the process, especially compared to states that don’t allow officials to process mail-in ballots until after Election Day.
“They can determine the validity of ballots, confirm that they should be counted and run them through machines,” Morley said. “They just can’t press the count button.”
Florida is taking steps to avoid lengthy back-and-forths on potentially problematic ballots. In electoral districts, optical scanners detect certain problems, such as a voter selecting too many candidates, which can be resolved on site. Additionally, any voter who returned an absentee ballot with an inconsistent or missing signature has until 5 p.m. two days after the election to submit an affidavit correcting the problem. California gives voters up to four weeks after the election to address such inconsistencies.
Learn more about how U.S. elections work in Explaining Election 2024, an Associated Press series aimed at making sense of American democracy. The AP receives support from several private foundations to improve its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. To learn more about AP’s democracy initiative, click here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
