Washington Examiner columnist Guy Benson blasted California’s election system following the state’s primary elections, saying, “It’s pathetic, this is how they roll in California.”
Benson emphasized that, a week after California’s June 2 primary election, the state is still working through hundreds of thousands of unprocessed ballots.
“I was looking at the estimated number of ballots not yet counted statewide, and the governor’s race, for example, still more than 2.6 million. It’s Monday after last Tuesday’s election. This is how they roll in California. I’m just slackjawed,” Benson said on Fox News’s The Story with Martha MacCallum on Monday.
California’s mail-in voting system has drawn scrutiny for the time it takes election officials to process and count ballots, particularly in high-turnout elections. The state’s expansive vote-by-mail process often results in ballots being counted well after Election Day, delaying final results in some races.
Citing Florida’s post-2000 election reforms as an example, Benson argued that California’s lengthy vote-counting process is a recurring problem that can be avoided.
“I’m incredulous that anyone accepts a third-world, trust-crushing, embarrassing debacle of a situation like this, election after election, after election. Martha, you and I both remember the 2000 presidential election, and hanging Chads, and the recounts, and all that down in Florida,” Benson said.
“The state of Florida ended up with a lot of egg on its face, and they made an affirmative decision. Let’s not do this again,” he said.
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Benson contended that the delays erode public trust and stand in stark contrast to states that can deliver results more quickly.
“It’s used in many places in this country and around the world, and politicians, and that machine out in California, they see this, and they make a choice to stick with this,” Benson said.