California’s primary elections were held on Tuesday, June 2, yet, over 24 hours later, the state still has not finished counting votes in any of its elections. Moreover, according to the most recent available updates, none of the state’s federal primaries has exceeded 60% of the votes counted. The lethargic pace of vote counting has been widely panned by numerous people on multiple social media platforms.
A recurring critic of California’s vote-counting pace is Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who called the vote-counting efforts “pathetic,” among other things, in multiple social media posts. He contrasted California’s prolonged vote-counting process with the speed and efficiency in his state of Florida.
“Florida processes more than 10 million votes in a matter of hours,” DeSantis said in a post on X. “California takes days — or sometimes even weeks — to count the votes.”
“It’s pathetic — and it’s corrosive to our civic culture,” said DeSantis.
Numerous primary races in the state on Tuesday drew national attention, including the Los Angeles Mayoral election, the California gubernatorial election, and several congressional races. None of them has had a winner declared yet due to the lag in vote counting. Both the gubernatorial and mayoral elections had three candidates vying for the top two spots to advance to November’s general election. Both races were too close to call after voting closed in California at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
In the Los Angeles mayoral election, with 63% of the vote counted as of Wednesday at 8:52 p.m., incumbent Democrat Karen Bass had the highest percentage of total votes so far with 35.0% and 183,701 votes, according to the Associated Press. Republican Spencer Pratt is next with 29.9% and 157,116 votes, followed by Democrat Nithya Raman with 22.8% and 119,809 votes.
In the California gubernatorial primary, with 56% of votes counted as of Wednesday at 8:54 p.m., Republican Steve Hilton was in the lead at 27.6% and 1,421,466 votes. Next was Democrat Xavier Becerra with 25.6% and 1,318,536 votes, followed by Tom Steyer with 19.8% and 1,019,332 votes.
BASS ADVANCES TO RUNOFF IN LOS ANGELES MAYORAL ELECTION, BUT HER OPPONENT REMAINS UNKNOWN
DeSantis made additional posts about California, particularly after reports of subsequent vote counts seemed to favor all Democrats. He first pondered whether the delays were due to “incompetence or intentional.”
He also questioned the methodology of the Golden State’s vote-counting practices after Polymarket revealed that Pratt had dropped to “third in LA mayoral odds.”
“California keeps dumping votes,” DeSantis said in a post on X. “Odds are shifting because the vote dumps always seem to go one way.”
“Count until you get the result you want?”