Steve Hilton, the leading candidate for California’s governorship, is urging Governor Gavin Newsom to establish an emergency response team to assist counties facing significant delays in counting votes.
With a backlog of hundreds of thousands of ballots left unprocessed after the June 2 primary, Hilton proposes forming an “emergency election counting acceleration force.” This initiative would be state-operated and aimed at providing additional staff and resources to election offices.
His objective is to ensure that complete and verified results are available by 8 p.m. on June 11, which is just 48 hours post the mail-in ballot deadline.
“California has become the joke of the nation regarding election processes. Here we have Silicon Valley, with some of the most sophisticated technology globally, and yet it takes officials a month to count less than 10 million ballots,” he expressed.
“This situation is ridiculous. Each election brings the same delays, excuses, and erosion of public trust. Californians deserve improvement.”
This proposal arises from increasing dissatisfaction over the slow pace of California’s vote counting. Even during a primary where fewer than 10 million votes are cast, results can take weeks to finalize.
Hilton contrasted California’s lengthy process with India’s ability to tally hundreds of millions of votes in a single day, highlighting that for a state known for its innovation, this delay is not acceptable.
The problem has been particularly pronounced in Los Angeles County, where recent tours revealed many empty workstations at a large ballot processing facility, despite over 700,000 ballots waiting to be counted.
Most desks were unoccupied, and the area set aside for manual ballot reviews was also vacant. For context, county elections receive around $336 million annually and are budgeted for over 1,100 employees.
According to Hilton’s plan, state workers in non-essential administrative roles would be reassigned temporarily to assist county election offices struggling with backlogs. Additionally, local “rapid teams” would be deployed quickly to those counties most affected.
The Election Count Acceleration Fund aims to reimburse counties for overtime, extended shifts, and weekend work to expedite ballot counting. Hilton’s proposal insists that existing election laws, security protocols, and vote-counting standards would remain intact.
While intended as a short-term fix, Hilton believes that broader reforms are necessary to rebuild trust in California’s election system.
