Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) acknowledged on Tuesday that California must improve the speed of its vote-counting process, breaking with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), who has defended the state’s process of counting ballots from Republicans and repeated attacks from President Donald Trump.
Khanna said he spoke with a “close friend” who was convinced that former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt was “robbed of an election” because votes were still being counted nearly a week after Election Day.
Nithya Raman ultimately defeated Pratt in the open primary when his early 40,000-vote lead evaporated. Election Day was on June 2, but the race wasn’t called until June 8.
“We need to figure out in California how we can get the vote counted faster and results tabulated so it does not drag on,” Khanna said on X. “We should make the investments in operational improvements and resources in the wealthiest state in the nation. It is worth spending the resources to get the vast majority of the vote counted within 48 hours. Right now the system is eroding trust and spawning conspiracy theories.”
California’s vote-counting system allows votes to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and received up to seven days after, which Khanna said “maximizes participation.” This system has drawn scrutiny for some time, particularly because it results in vote-counting delays long past Election Day.
Newsom has defended the state’s election procedures, dismissing criticism over prolonged vote counts by noting that California is a “big state” with nearly 40 million residents and millions of ballots cast in major elections.
Newsom’s press office responded to an X post by El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells that said Californians get 30 days to turn in ballots, and claimed that some ballots being counted were mailed in after Election Day.
“The Mayor is spreading misinformation,” Newsom’s press account responded. “Ballots are counted if they are postmarked BY Election Day so long as they are received up to 7 days after — you know, cause this is a big state and mail can take some time.”
TRUMP DOJ INTENSIFIES SCRUTINY OF CALIFORNIA AS BALLOT COUNTING CONTINUES
Trump and the GOP have long been critical of California’s mail-in voting system, and the delays in counting ballots in the Los Angeles mayoral primary election and the gubernatorial primary election prompted the Justice Department to investigate the state’s counting system.
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have launched multiple election fraud investigations, opened a public tip line for reporting suspected election misconduct, renewed criticism of California’s voter registration and ballot-collection policies, and sent a federal prosecutor to Los Angeles County’s ballot processing center to observe the counting process.