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California is trying to figure out ways to speed up vote counting. It took a week for the governor's race and the results for Los Angeles mayor to be called in this month's primaries. President Trump and his allies are seizing on that delay to spread false claims of fraud. Guy Marzorati from member station KQED reports.
GUY MARZORATI, BYLINE: Here's why California takes so long to count. The state mails every voter a ballot by default, and millions of voters here have gotten in the habit of returning their ballots on Election Day. That leads to a big pileup of ballots that need to be checked before they can be counted, says Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation.
KIM ALEXANDER: Counties lack the staff space and equipment that they need to facilitate more efficient ballot processing.
MARZORATI: Alexander is asking lawmakers to give counties nearly $56 million to buy new machines to sort and scan ballots.
ALEXANDER: And a lot of counties need more staff support, and it's expensive if they want to hire part-time or pay overtime employees.
MARZORATI: But Republican Assembly Member Natasha Johnson is on the fence about spending more for vote counting. She says state leaders could instead encourage Californians to return their ballots earlier, which would allow for a larger share of results to be counted on election night.
NATASHA JOHNSON: That's the story I think we need to start telling and sharing. It's like, vote by mail and vote early, and then we have a better depiction of how this is going to play out.
MARZORATI: Rather than change voter behavior, other lawmakers are pushing to alter the state's election rules. Democratic Senator Laura Richardson wants to make it easier for voters to bring their completed vote-by-mail ballot to a polling place and check in before casting it.
LAURA RICHARDSON: Which could potentially avoid the delay of doing the verification on the back end when it's a part of thousands and thousands of other ballots.
MARZORATI: Matt Moreles, the registrar of voters in Santa Clara County, says that would just trade one problem for another.
MATT MORELES: Yes, you might save, like, a little bit of time in signature checking on the back end, but you're going to have longer lines at vote centers or polling places.
MARZORATI: Moreles argues that Californians have shown through their actions they like the convenience of voting at home and returning their ballots when they want. But the stakes for a faster count could be even higher in November, when California House seats could decide the balance of power in Congress.
For NPR News, I'm Guy Marzorati in San Jose.
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