Are you aware that dogs and cats are voting in California! You think this is some kind of joke. Well, do you!
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Florida vs. California on Mail Ballots
One state counts the votes quickly, and the other takes weeks.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ
Oct. 23, 2024 5:42 pm ET
Two weeks from Election Day, nearly 25 million ballots have already been cast, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab vote tracker. That includes 16 million mail votes out of the 63 million mail ballots requested so far. One result of this transformation in voting is that winners might be impossible to call for days or even weeks.
Blame bad policies, and the difference between Florida and California is instructive. In 2020 polls in the Florida panhandle closed at 8 p.m., Eastern time. By a half-hour past midnight, when the Associated Press called the state for Donald Trump, AP said 96% of the expected vote had been tallied.
Meantime, California’s Secretary of State issued a news release that Thursday, saying officials were “hard at work,” with 12.4 million ballots counted and an estimated 4.5 million still outstanding. In a couple of the state’s close U.S. House races, winners weren’t called until after Thanksgiving, though the final margin in one of them was more than 1,500 votes (or 0.8%), which is tight but not a squeaker.
What is Florida doing right? After the 2000 recount made the state a punchline, it successfully reformed its elections. Anyone can cast a mail ballot, no excuse required, but the system is set up to ensure speedy results. The deadline to request a blank ballot via the mail is 12 days before the election. Completed ballots must be received by 7 p.m., local time, on Election Day. In the meantime, clerks are permitted to pre-process mail votes that come in early.
California’s rules are intentionally lenient. Every registered voter is sent a mail ballot, and as long as the return envelope has a postmark saying it was sent back by Election Day, it’s still valid if it arrives at the clerk’s office a week later. This is “a little slower,” one proponent in the state Assembly recently said. “But in a society that wants immediate gratification, I think our democracy is worth taking a little time to get it right and to create a system where everyone can participate.”
American elections are hardly rushed affairs. They last for months, and mail ballots are sent out to voters with weeks to spare. It isn’t too much of a burden to ask that they be returned by Election Day, and this interminable counting of tardy mail ballots is corrosive to public confidence. Late counting opens the door for partisans to raise doubts about races that flip outcomes after Election Day.
This year control of the U.S. House could be decided by a few hotly contested seats, especially in California. Who thinks it will be good for American democracy if the Speaker’s gavel comes down to disputed counts and ends up in limbo until December?
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