California votes mostly by mail now with nearly 90% of ballots coming in that way, and often at the last minute, which slows the count.
“A lot of voters hold on to their vote by mail ballots until election day, and wait till then to turn them in because they want to have an election day experience, which we understand," said Kim Alexander who leads the California Voter Foundation. "But it is slowing down the vote count. Getting ballots in just a little bit sooner can really make a difference.”
California has one of the slowest ballot counts in the country, sometimes taking weeks to complete. The count is getting faster though. A new state law pushed counties to tally most ballots within 13 days, and the state put $40 million toward the effort.
One option to speed up the process that is spreading quickly is called Sign, Scan and Go. Voters bring their ballot to a voting site and run it through a scanner themselves, so it counts on election night.
“We shaved three and a half days off of our election processing when we only got up to about 25 percent of our voters who voted in person in November of 2024," said Ryan Ronco, the registrar for Placer County which was an early adopter. "It’s a real demonstrable difference in the way that we process.”
Sign, Scan and Go is now offered in more than 30 counties, but officials say the simplest fix is the oldest one: return your ballot early.