Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is urging Governor Gavin Newsom to expedite California's vote counting process, citing concerns that delays in reporting election results are undermining public trust in the state's elections. As of Monday afternoon, several key races, including those for governor and Los Angeles mayor, remained unresolved six days after the election, leading to speculation about election integrity.
Hilton stated, "Californians deserve elections that are secure, transparent, and timely." He called on Newsom to allocate resources to improve the counting process, suggesting the implementation of an "Emergency Election Count Accelerator Plan" to provide additional support to county election offices. This plan would involve temporarily reassigning government employees to assist with administrative tasks and creating specialized response teams for counties with high workloads.
California election officials have defended the current timeline, attributing delays to extensive verification procedures and laws allowing ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive later. Despite Newsom's previous calls for faster processing, California continues to experience prolonged ballot counting, with several major races still undecided. As of the latest update, with 72% of the vote counted, Becerra has secured 27.2%, Hilton has 25.9%, and Steyer has 21.5%, according to the Associated Press.
