LA Times editorial board member defends California's slow voting process as 'election integrity' in action

A left-leaning Los Angeles Times editorial board member defended California still counting votes nearly a month after Election Day this week, saying the state’s “painstaking process of collecting and checking” ballots was a testament to election integrity.

“Could some counties process and count ballots faster? Maybe. Some state legislators are interested in finding ways to expedite the process,” LA Times editorial board member Carla Hall wrote this week.

“But what’s more important is that the slow pace has gone hand in hand with allowing voters ample time and a few ways to get their ballots in — and then to fix issues that might prevent them from being counted. The painstaking process of collecting and checking these ballots speaks both to election integrity and to giving voters access and opportunities to vote.”

As Hall noted, some Californians were getting ready for Halloween when they voted in the 2024 race, and now they’re putting up Christmas decorations while officials were still counting votes. 

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Vice President Kamala Harris, a former California U.S. senator, was quickly named the winner in California on Election Night, but the notoriously slow-counting state was still tabulating ballots last week, which has cut into President-elect Donald Trump’s national popular vote margin. Trump lost California by nearly 30 points in 2020 to Joe Biden but cut the margin to about 20 points in 2024.

The final undecided House race in the country was called last week in California, when Democrat Adam Gray ousted Republican Rep. John Duarte in the 13th Congressional District. Gray declared victory four weeks after the election. Another House race in the 45th Congressional District, where Democrat Derek Tran unseated GOP Rep. Michelle Steel, was called more than three weeks after the election.

“It is absurd for California to accept ballots by mail up to 7 days after Election Day and take almost a month to count them,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley wrote on X last month.

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SANTA ANA, CA – November 12: Workers process ballots at the Orange County Registrar of Voters in Santa Ana, CA on Tuesday, November 12, 2024. A large voter turnout and the ballot verification process adds to the time it takes to get a final tally.  (Getty Images)

But Hall said people shouldn’t be “hating” on the country’s most populous state for taking its time, citing its provisions like mailing every voter a ballot a month before Election Day and how the state allows citizens to register and vote by provisional ballot on Election Day. In addition, California voters are contacted if their signatures don’t match the ones on voter rolls and given an opportunity to “cure” their ballots, and they have until Dec. 1 to do so.

“That makes it worth waiting for a few races that seemed to take forever to call,” Hall argued.

Hall’s previous individual articles show her preference for Harris; a pre-election column lamented a second Trump administration would damage abortion rights further and another said Harris had “already earned your vote.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Hall for further comment.

California’s vote-counting process has been prolonged due to the high volume of mail-in-ballots, with a majority of Californians opting to vote by mail. In the state’s 2022 election, nearly 90% of votes were cast via mail-in ballots.

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The Los Angeles Times building and newsroom. ((Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images))

State law also permits mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive up to a week later. Mail-in ballots are typically put through a verification process that can also lengthen the amount of time they are tallied. The election certification deadline is Dec. 16. 

Fox News Digital’s Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.