America, Accepting Endless Vote Counts Like California’s, Puts Democracy at Risk

California’s Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, is telling citizens not to expect the results of Tuesday night’s primary for another 37 days, inspiring eyerolls and jokes. Yet that apathy ignores how normalizing drawn-out election tallying erodes faith in democracy and sets the stage for disaster in a future presidential election.“Ballots,” Ms. Weber’s website says with a graphic of the 37-day countdown, “continue to be counted. … county elections officials must report final official results” by July 3. The long delay means results of key races from mayor of Los Angeles to governor hang in the balance, and Republicans are suspicious.“There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California,” President Trump alleged on Truth Social at 1 a.m. “Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY?”Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt speaks during a campaign event on May 31, 2026, at Los Angeles. AP/Jill ConnellyAmericans asked the same question during Florida’s 2000 presidential election. The infamous “hanging chads” resulted from the state’s punch-card “butterfly ballots.” Vice President Gore’s lawyers challenged absentee ballots, including those cast by the military, which they argued had invalid postmarks.President George W. Bush prevailed at the Supreme Court on cases related to the recount, and Mr. Gore conceded after 36 days. Florida ditched the butterfly ballots and modernized its election system, conducting the 2004 presidential contest quickly and without a hitch.Hours after the polls closed in 2024, Florida had counted almost 99 percent of its votes. Yet in California, almost a third were uncounted. Several House races dragged on for weeks as the Golden State kept updating the final number. India’s 1.4 billion people, meanwhile, get their presidential election results in a single day.California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra on June 2, 2026, at Los Angeles. AP/Jae HongAt the dawn of the Internet, Americans were promised that winners and losers would be determined with the cold precision of computers. Instead, election results began taking longer even as technology advanced. Wins are often reversed as counting drags on, eroding the confidence of an already cynical electorate.In 1872, when polling figures were sent by telegraph, the population of America’s 37 states was about equal to today’s 40 million Californians. In just 24 hours, President Grant was declared reelected and electoral votes were parceled out to five other candidates.Close elections were the norm in the Gilded Age, which began in Grant’s first term. The messiest contest was in 1876. President Hayes went to bed believing he’d lost. While he slept, though, Republicans realized that if they could flip Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina with recounts, he would win 185 to 184 in the Electoral College.Democrats disputed an elector in Oregon so Governor Samuel Tilden, who won the popular vote, would prevail. Congress created a commission — five senators, five representatives, and five Supreme Court justices — to settle the matter. After 115 days, Hayes was declared the winner just 24 hours before Inauguration Day on March 5, 1877.The Electoral Commission meets at Washington, D.C. in 1877. Library of CongressA Republican appointee, Justice Joseph Bradley, was the deciding vote for Hayes in all the commission’s rulings. Today, his party allegiance would make him suspect. In April, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, referred to the “illegitimate Supreme Court majority” of six GOP appointees to three Democratic ones.Republicans also criticize the Nine when it rules against them, as Mr. Trump when disputing vote counts in 2020. Gone are the days when they were regarded as neutral arbiters. Partisans grumbled about their rulings but accepted their judgments even in electoral cases that decided the balance of power.If disputes occurred in multiple states today — exacerbated by slow, California-style counting and recounting — a presidential election could drag past Inauguration Day on January 20. The Twentieth Amendment and Presidential Succession Act would prevent an Oval Office vacancy, but the damage would be done.Citizens ought to be able to expect votes to be counted with the prompt efficiency of Florida, India, and Grant’s 37-state union. The longer the snout counting takes, the more maleficence is suspected and the less legitimate the winners seem. Dragging out the process is a dangerous new normal, one that sets the stage for the disaster America avoided in 1876 and 2000.

America, Accepting Endless Vote Counts Like California’s, Puts Democracy at Risk

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