California Secretary of State Shirley Weber is pushing back against efforts to speed up the state’s notoriously slow vote count.

Some close congressional races — and control of the U.S. House — hung in the balance for more than a week after the November election as California elections officials worked their way through mountains of mail-in ballots.

The drawn-out count drew criticism from across the country, from Republicans and Democrats alike. New federal and state proposals would require most ballots be counted within 72 hours and 10 days, respectively.

Weber said they’re “arbitrary decisions” that conflict with other election mandates lawmakers have set.

“The Legislature itself places on us a tremendous responsibility,” Weber said in an interview with The Bee. “It says to us: we want you to count every ballot. We want you to do it fast. So then it becomes very complicated,” especially in large voting jurisdictions like Los Angeles, where nearly 4 million ballots were processed during the 2024 election.

There are several reasons elections take longer to count in California than other places around the country.

The state requires every voter to be sent a mail-in ballot, which has become the primary way for people to cast their vote. But mail-in ballots take longer to process than voting machines and require labor-intensive signature checks. Many counties have small elections staff and take weeks to work through those ballots.

plan: 90% counted within 72 hours

The federal proposal was introduced by Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Big Bear Lake, and would require states to count 90% of their ballots within 72 hours of polls closing. Weber said it would conflict with a state law that allows up to a week for mail-in ballots to arrive at an elections office.

She also criticized Republican members of Congress for introducing the measure after the most recent elections, which saw two Democrats wrest control of congressional swing districts.

“When the Republicans won those two districts, nobody complained about the amount of time. This time the Democrats won, and now we’ve got bills from our congressman” to speed it up, she said.

The slow count “can frustrate the public and provide an opportunity for bad actors to sow doubt about election results,” said Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, the author of the legislative proposal to speed it up.

In the years since the pandemic, Democrats have emphasized election accessibility via vote-by-mail, security measures like signature checks, and plenty of time for mail ballots to arrive and any mistakes to be flagged and corrected.

Weber was frustrated by the shifting priorities.

“Berman tells me he wants us to count every ballot (more quickly), and that’s good,” Weber said. “But then you’re going to gin the people up. They have to have the results within 10 days,” despite a handful of exceptions to the proposed 10-day deadline, such as ballots cast by people who registered to vote within two weeks of an election.

“The average person is not going to look at the list of exceptions. They’re going to say, ‘You’re supposed to do this in 10 days,’ “ Weber said.

The Secretary of State has spoken with Berman and other Democratic lawmakers about her concerns.

“I hear the things that they’re saying,” about speeding it up, she said. “But based on all the things that California has asked everybody to do … We will not certify the election until (the count) is finished.”

In a statement to The Bee, Berman said his bill “will create clear and achievable standards for when the vast majority of ballots will be counted” and most races decided.

“I look forward to further conversations with Secretary of State Weber and other stakeholders to ensure that AB 5 strikes the right balance between level-setting for the public and identifying achievable targets for our hard working elections officials.”

Pressure has built on California elections officials in the aftermath of recent elections, as tight congressional races and control of the U.S. House hung in the balance.

“I understand why California leaders bristle about the complaints, especially when they come from out of state,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation.

But she agrees the system could be improved. “To leave voters hanging that long can be a real letdown,” she said. “Elections should be exciting.”

Alexander said local elections offices are “notoriously” underfunded and that support from the state would help them invest in staff and technology to process ballots faster. She’s also advocating for funding for public awareness campaigns, which helped drive high turnout and low ballot rejections during the 2020 election.

But with uncertainty surrounding the state budget, it’s unclear what lawmakers and the governor will fund this year. Alexander said the Voter Foundation’s recommendations “so far have not been embraced in legislation.”

Weber criticizes federal SAVE Act

Weber, who was appointed Secretary of State in 2021, also raised concerns about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a federal proposal to require proof of citizenship to vote.

President Donald Trump and some Republicans have falsely claimed illegal voting is a widespread problem that impacts the outcome of federal elections, but studies and recent audits of voter rolls in other states have shown noncitizen voting is rare.

“The whole SAVE Act is predicated on the fact that we have a tremendous amount of fraud in the system,” Weber said in an interview with The Bee. “Yet, every report has come back and said that is not the case.”

Voters would have to prove they are U.S. citizens by showing certain documents when registering to vote in federal elections, such as a passport or birth certificate. It would also require states to maintain voter lists to confirm citizenship.

Weber and other Democrats argue the bill would effectively disenfranchise millions of voters who do not have access to the necessary documents and that it would make it more difficult for married women and others who have changed their name to vote.