California’s Primary Took a Week to Call
California’s June 2, 2026 primary drew sharp national attention after it took approximately a week to count enough ballots to declare a winner in the governor’s race. President Trump, polling analyst Nate Silver, and the New York Times editorial board all criticized the delay, with the Times arguing California’s slow returns were “damaging faith in government.”
State Democratic leaders aren’t dismissing the criticism entirely, but they say the trade-off is unacceptable: speeding up results would require policy changes that make voting harder for many Californians.
Mail-In Ballots Drive the Delay, and Funding Makes It Worse
The slow count comes from California’s heavy reliance on mail-in voting. A large share of mail ballots arrive on Election Day itself or the day before, leaving county registrars with a massive processing backlog after polls close.
“If you want results election night, you’re going to have to go back to in-person voting, way earlier deadlines for returning by mail and you’re going to end up disenfranchising voters.”
Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, Chair of the California Assembly Elections Committee, June 2026
Pellerin, a Santa Cruz Democrat and former county registrar, chairs the Assembly elections committee. Her view reflects the dominant position among Democratic leadership: accuracy and access over speed.
The funding problem compounds the processing problem. California counties do not receive ongoing state contributions for elections, and the Public Policy Institute of California found that counties lack the money to hire enough workers to process ballots faster. Eric McGhee, a senior fellow at PPIC, told CalMatters that registrars are “kind of managing the best they can with the budget that they have.”
Secretary of State Shirley Weber went further, telling CalMatters in April that slow-count criticism was a Trump talking point: “For me, accuracy is far more important.”
The Real Choice Is Access vs. Speed
California Republicans and Democrats both say they want faster results, but the paths to get there carry real costs. Earlier mail-ballot deadlines would cut off voters who currently rely on last-minute submission. A return to primarily in-person voting would reduce participation in a state where vote-by-mail has expanded turnout.
The structural funding gap is the one area where action wouldn’t require restricting access. The state has never established a permanent funding stream for county election operations, leaving registrars to absorb the cost of California’s mail-heavy system with one-time or federal dollars.
What You Can Do Now
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Call your California state assemblymember and state senator at (916) 651-4040 (Senate) or (916) 319-2856 (Assembly) and urge them to support permanent state funding for county election operations. The PPIC has documented that underfunding is a primary driver of processing delays.
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Contact Assembly Elections Committee Chair Gail Pellerin at (916) 319-2028 or online and ask her to hold a hearing specifically on county election funding rather than ballot-access rollbacks.
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Submit a public comment to the California Secretary of State’s office at (916) 653-6814 calling for a state-funded election infrastructure grant program for counties. Accuracy and speed are not mutually exclusive if counties have the resources to process ballots promptly.
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Find your county registrar at california.gov/find-my-county and ask what their current processing capacity is and whether they’ve formally requested additional state funding. County registrars who document budget shortfalls create a public record that lawmakers must respond to.
Sources
CalMatters: CA Democrats Want Election Results Faster but Say Solutions Hurt Voters Public Policy Institute of California: California County Election Funding and Administration California Secretary of State: Election Administration and Results
[Callout: California provides no ongoing state funding to counties for election administration.
PPIC finding cited by CalMatters. CalMatters]