“The fact that California elections often can’t be resolved for weeks is kind of insane and not common in other electoral systems around the world. Like honestly ‘it’s going to take us several weeks to tell you who won the election’ is failed state s**t and should be much more stigmatized.” — Nate Silver.”
Nate Silver is one of America’s most respected pollsters. And he sees the problem in California for what it is – a broken system in need of reform.
In my district, for example, California’s 6th Congressional District, we still don’t know definitively who will advance as ballots continue to trickle in. Early returns show incumbent Kevin Kiley (Independent/No Party Preference) leading, with Republican Michael Stansfield and Democrat Richard Pan battling for second place.
Yet another issue is the fact that California has a “jungle primary” where the top vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party. This setup can produce same-party runoffs. California-6 was recently redrawn by Governor Gavin Newsom under Proposition 50 to advantage democrats. But instead, it appears the plan may have backfired by locking out democrats from the general election.
This outcome is wrong no matter where it happens or which party it disadvantages. Competitive maps should reflect voters, not engineered outcomes. And yet, this is yet another sign of decline in California’s democratic system.
Nate Silver is right to call California’s slow results a symptom of a failed state. But the problems run deeper. California’s system, universal mail-in ballots sent to every registered voter, with ballots accepted up to a week after Election Day, prioritizes convenience over speed and security.
I voted in person, as I always do. Because I believe elections should be a snapshot of the country at the same time we all have the same information. And mail-in voting creates inherent delays for signature verification, curing, and processing and is ripe for abuse. Ballot harvesting, chain-of-custody issues, or late surges can flip results of an election days or weeks after election day.
Even if we assume there is no fraud, such delays erodes confidence in our system,
Voting should not be this complicated.
Absentee or mail voting makes sense for specific cases: military personnel or civilians abroad, people with disabilities, those hospitalized, or essential workers unable to reach polls. But for the general population, mail in voting makes it difficult to trust election results, even if no wrongdoing occurs.
Shifting primarily to in-person voting, with robust ID requirements, same-day counting, and strict deadlines, would restore trust in the system.
Californians, and Americans everywhere, deserve elections that are secure, transparent, and resolved promptly. Anything less undermines the foundation of self-government.
