Question
I live in California and voted by absentee ballot. Were the absentee ballots in California ever counted? I remember hearing about one million absentee ballots that hadn't been counted. Later I thought that I heard the absentee ballots were almost complete, but when talking to my sister last night she said she had heard that they hadn't been counted. I wouldn't have thought too much about our conversation, but later I heard a woman talking about the absentee ballots in California not being counted unless they were needed to break a tie or something. Are the absentee ballots in California routinely not counted?
Answer
This is an interesting question! I had to look it up myself, as I also had heard the charge that absentee ballots in California were not being counted. According to the California Secretary of State's office, "In California, county election officials have 28 days from the date of the election to complete the final canvass of votes, however, the final results in most races will be determined well before that deadline. The extended period of time to review the ballots is required to ensure that the election officials are able to verify the signatures of voters on absentee ballots against the signatures on voter registration cards before the absentee ballots can be opened and counted." In other words, they are supposed to count all the ballots by 28 days after the election. But if they can tell who was elected before they count them all, they will announce that, and then finish counting. They report that 1,146,894 absentee ballots have been counted since election day, and that no uncounted ballots remain. (Of course, they could have lost a few someplace.) You can find all this on the web at http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_upbr.htm.