we dodged a bullet with California not being terribly relevant to who won the nomination

[geek tragedy]

California is still counting votes and may not have official tallies until much later.

The convention is also just a few weeks away.

One can imagine a scenario where the overall contest was close enough that it came down to California, and its process of slogging through provisional ballots as mail-ins continued to trickle in.

if people thought Nevada with its grand total of 2 delegates up for grabs was an angry sh!tshow with one candidate ahead by 300 pledged delegates, imagine California voting with one candidate ahead by 45 pledged delegates and dragging this process out by weeks at the end of the primary season. Lawsuits galore, competing delegations trying to be seated at the national convention, etc.

if California is going to take this long to count and certify their votes, they should move their primary date up in the calendar.

[Skwmom]

1. So it would favor the establishment candidate...

[Alex4Martinez]

9. Sucks to be us in California, but this isn't about voters, this is about celebrity.

This election is too important to be left to mere voters.



The media, the corporations, the party bosses and lobbyist super delegates know far better what to do, right?

[onenote]

2. They will have official tallies around 2 and a half weeks (or more) before the convention

By law, the tallies of the results must be reported by July 5 and the certification of the votes must occur by July 9.

1.Will the unofficial election results change after election night? When will all of the election results be final?
Yes, election results will change throughout the canvass period as vote-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots, and other ballots are processed. Depending on the volume of these types of ballots, it may take up to 30 days (28 days for presidential delegates and 30 days for all other contests) for county elections officials to verify voter records and determine if ballots have been cast by eligible voters. The frequency of updated results will vary based on the size of each county and the process each local elections office uses to tally and report votes.

County elections officials must report their final results to the Secretary of State for presidential delegates by July 5, 2016, and all other offices by July 8, 2016. The Secretary of State will compile the results of the election of presidential delegates by July 9, 2016, and will certify the results of all other offices by July 15, 2016.


http://vote.sos.ca.gov/frequently-asked-questions/

[geek tragedy]

4. that seems like a lot of time when the race is already decided

could be talking Bush vs Gore chaos if the outcome of the nomination could be decided by late votes and provisionals, and lawsuits gummed things up.

[MattP]

3. It's a blowout in Ca

The lead is growing

[Stallion]

5. Clinton Still Leads by 12.7%

actually up from 12.6%

Lead has grown to 456,699

[geek tragedy]

6. as I noted, we dodged a bullet *this time* because the late-coming

results won't affect anything.

if it were a lot closer, it could be a sh!tshow

[Stallion]

7. Agree Just Pointing Out Because Some Claimed Bernie Could Actually Win After Votes were Counted

nm

[geek tragedy]

8. same people argue that California was rigged against him and stolen.

I guess they can't make up their minds

[Retrograde]

10. "We need paper ballots that are counted by hand"

Last edited Fri Jun 10, 2016, 04:11 PM - Edit history (1)

I've read that a lot on DU. This is what happens when that is (at least partially) applied to a big state with multiple elections on the ballot.

The majority of Californians vote by mail on paper ballots. Good, right? Well, all of those have to be looked at to make sure the signature on the outer envelope matches the voter's signature on file. That can be done as they're trickling in before the election, but there is a big swell on election day and afterwards (ballots postmarked by June 7 are accepted until the end of the business week). Then some humans have to open them, remove the contents (my ballot was 2 separate pages) and feed them into the scanner. And if the ballot can not be read properly, a human has to look at it.

Then there are the provisional ballots. Every one has to be looked at and its validity determined before it is counted.

California's getting the attention now because the press decided to call the election early, but it's not unusual - elections aren't certified until the Secretary of State says they are, and that has been in the schedule all along. The month it takes to count and certify the vote is baked into the process because sometimes it's needed. Remember 2000? Not just the Florida debacle: Minnesota took about a month to certify its Senate race because the vote was so close.

So, should the state rush its process because the media want a simple answer RIGHT NOW, or take its time, be careful, and do the best job it can?

[suffragette]

11. Sounds like east coast impatience with west coast process

We clearly take more time than the media likes in our policies for voting and in taking time to count and recount, if needed.

Sure glad we did that with the Governor's race between Gregoire and Rossi in Wa state back in the day. I shudder at the idea of what Rossi would have done as Governor and am glad that we had a process in place that uncovered ballots that were erroneously kept from being counted the first time around (even a Seattle Council member originally had his ballot not counted at first).

I'd rather the results be accurate than timed for the east coast media to easily report.

[geek tragedy]

12. I'm talking calendar, not clock.

they should get it right, obviously, but they can choose when to have the primary.

why not hold it in April instead?

[suffragette]

13. I'm talking both

I agree with you about having California's primary earlier though. April would be better.