This week, the nation watched as California grappled again with the ordinarily straightforward task of counting votes in an election. While large states such as Florida declare election winners within 24 hours, California may take up to two weeks to count all the votes.
Even Los Angeles cannot count its votes in the time of large states despite giving the Clerk an annual budget of $336 million and a $448,179 a year salary with the help of 1,100 budgeted positions.
In most states, voters would be outraged by the incompetence, waste, and inefficiency. However, in the Golden State, voters shrug, as if they can demand no more from their elected officials than subpar performance.
Call it the Politics of Low Expectations and California is the model for the nation.
For years, my students have asked me what the secret is to a successful marriage approaching four decades (For full disclosure, there is an ongoing contractual dispute over my counting eight years of monogamous dating — leading to two dates on our anniversary cakes). The answer is simple. I reduced her expectations so low that I have exceeded them on a daily basis.
That began with our eloping on New Year’s Eve. We were married after an actual shotgun wedding where the clearly expectant teenage bride’s family was screaming profanities at the teenage groom. After paying $50 and using my high school ring for a wedding ring, we stepped out on the street of Old Town Alexandria as a drunk was retching in the gutter. That left only room for improvement.
On any given day, my wife is simply grateful that I have not traded the house and car for a handful of magic beans.
California Democrats seem to have applied my approach to matrimony to politics, creating a politician’s dream voter with few expectations.
That is most evident with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s infamous high-speed train to nowhere.
In 2008, voters were promised a 500-mile High-Speed train running from San Francisco to Los Angeles for $33 billion. It is now projected to cost somewhere between $126 billion and $231 billion. After roughly two decades, no track has been laid, and the current plan is to focus on building a track between Bakersfield and Merced.
Without any track to display, Newsom recently stood before a freight train on an existing track to insist that his train is moving speedily along.
One would think that citizens would be coming for their leaders with torches and pitchforks. Instead, there is a collective shrug as if it is perfectly normal to spend more than the entire budget of Amtrak on a non-existent train.
The same leaders have burned billions in other boondoggles, including a massive solar power farm that produced energy at a higher cost and incinerated thousands of birds a year.
California is facing a growing crisis of rising homelessness, dismal education scores, and an exodus of business and wealthy taxpayers. It has also imposed taxes that make gas the most expensive in the nation while suppressing its own energy industry.
Now, after many voters took the unprecedented step of voting for Republican candidates for governor and L.A. mayor, citizens will wait for weeks to learn the results of an election that would have been called days ago by third-world countries.
The same politics of low expectations are evident in other states. In New York City, voters just shrug when told that they have a budget rivaling that of the entire state of Florida, resulting in awful educational, infrastructure, and other conditions. Voters have watched as wealthy taxpayers have taken their money and jobs to other states.
In return, figures like Mayor Zohran Mamdani promise state-run grocery stores, which will cost tens of millions of dollars to build and operate at a loss.
In Minnesota, elected officials allowed billions to be stolen in fraud while businesses fled a state rife with rioting and homelessness.
In virtually every major city from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York, public schools are spending massive amounts on education to graduate many students who lack basic proficiency in English and Math. In Baltimore, a student failed all but three of his classes and was ranked in the top half of his graduating class.
Yet, voters reelected the same leaders who have denied generations any real opportunity for advancement. While other countries maintain superior school systems at a fraction of the cost, urban voters cast their ballots like lemmings for the same party and politicians.
In states like California, politics has long been run on Henry Ford’s pitch that you can have any color Model T so long as it is black. This election seemed to offer voters something they had not seen in many years: a real choice between a Republican governor and an L.A. mayor.
As California slowly counts its votes, the odds still heavily favor the continuation of California as a one-party state. Poor services, rising crime, rampant homelessness, hundreds of billions in waste and other failures are treated as virtually inevitable. The result is an electorate that only a politician would love: passive voters who expect little from their government and receive even less.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
CEO of World’s Largest Bank Has Some Harsh Reality for Blue States: Population Exodus Is Your Own Fault
CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon breaks down the “huge exodus” from blue states to red states, saying implementing high taxes is “hurting your own city.”
“Look at California versus Nevada… New York versus Florida and there’s a… pic.twitter.com/EZlMucwK0l
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) March 31, 2026
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2026/03/31/ceo-of-worlds-largest-bank-has-some-harsh-reality-for-blue-states-population-exodus-is-your-own-fault-n2200819
Truly excellent, there is nothing to add. 👍🏼
> However, in the Golden State, voters shrug, as if they can demand no more from their elected officials than subpar performance.
This is based on a false assumption. The incompetence is intended. It is a feature, not a bug. It makes the fraud much easier.
Speaking of the train to nowhere, High-speed rail project criticized again after $3.5B contract
https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_cb8b2e41-c519-4163-9f4c-5baf78a38d48.html?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=offthepress&utm_campaign=home
JT: Well said! One of your best.
LOL! Nope. It’s par for the course for the most disingenuous and what is basically a rant. But carry on.
Horse manure.
Define rant
george
most disingenuous and what is basically a rant. But carry on.
You would know about that. So how is the nice 747-8 coming along. You know, the one you claimed Prez Trump would leave with it when he leaves the W/H
Great op-ed and great comments. I am waiting to vote for a politician who is brave enough to say “we screwed up” and “here is how we are going to fix the problem.” The 500 mile bullet train was a great idea. I have ridden bullet trains in Japan and they are wonderful. Much easier than flying. But it is time for a California politician to say this great idea just isn’t going to ever work, we made a mistake, and we are terminating the program.
California has been influenced by Spanish speaking culture a lot longer than Anglo influence, going back to the Conquista age of discovery. Knowing a little Spanish unlocks real meaning from Spanish place names. For example, it is possible to see that California has made a religion out of bad government. Sacramento is Spanish for sacrament.
Jeeeeezuz, so much ignorance and plain ol’ stupidity. Wow. Where to start?
First, Professor Turley goes full bore into disingenuous claims and mischaracterizations. California’s slow vote count has nothing to do with incompetence or nefarious intentions. It’s a big population and a LOT of candidates to consider. Being slow and deliberate to make sure every vote is counted AND verified is more important than instant results. You would think the “common sense” crowd would get that. California election law mandates strict, non-negotiable verification and processing steps that legally prevent them from rushing or cutting corners.
Counties must accept and count mail-in ballots that arrive up to 7 days after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. Officials cannot even begin to count thousands of legally cast ballots until a full week after the polls close.
If a voter forgets to sign their ballot envelope, or if their signature does not match their voter registration file, officials cannot throw it away. They are legally required to contact the voter and give them until 2 days before the county certifies the election to fix (“cure”) it.
This process requires mailing notices back and forth, extending the processing time for thousands of ballots by several weeks.
Every active registered voter in California must be mailed a ballot.
Sorting, opening, flattening, and physically verifying the millions of envelopes returned via mail requires highly secure, multi-step manual labor that states relying heavily on in-person voting do not have to perform.
California allows Conditional Voter Registration up to and including Election Day.
These ballots must be kept separate as “provisional” ballots. Election workers must manually verify that the voter is eligible and has not voted anywhere else before the ballot can be opened and counted.
Before certifying the election, every county must conduct a public, manual hand-count of 1% of all ballots cast in randomly selected precincts.
This paper-to-machine reconciliation step is a rigorous quality-control measure that adds days to the official canvass period.
Election officials are legally granted 30 days to complete the official canvass and submit the final, audited results to the Secretary of State.
Media outlets often project winners early based on partial data, but the law expects and protects a month-long process to ensure absolute accuracy.
With all these processes in place it seems California is more thorough about their vote counts than some other states and Turley is griping about it? Why? He doesn’t even vote in California. Sheesh.
Everything you talk about in your screed is the cause of tge nonsense in CA. It’s all legal just stupid. AND IT MAY violate the guarantee clause of the US Constitution.
Are you absolutely sure about that? Really sure? Or are you just making an argument from ignorance. Think carefully.
The dullard is calling others ignorant. What a laugh.
S. Meyer, calling me a “dollars” doesn’t change the fact you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re just making yourself look worse.
ooops. X’s AI just goofed, changing from “dullard” to “dollars.” Catch that?
“You’re just making yourself look worse.”
Geez, funny that someone just said that to X a few hours ago. Not an original thought in X’s head.
The word was not dollars, but dullard, which is very generous in your case.
You cant call him a dullard! He is the smartest person he knows! Just look how he knows everything!
We’re sure.
Jeeeeezuz, so much ignorance and plain ol’ stupidity. Wow. Where to start? …. you make no sense with those diatribes. George, seriously, you beclown yourself daily recycling stupid and meaningless attacks on Turley, and those incredible lies you spew. You waste hours, days, weeks repeating those brainless rants. If you want attention – pathologically so – you seek it here daily, start your own blog and see where that leads to.
I make no sense to YOU because you may not be smart enough to understand what you read or just don’t want to acknowledge that those are factually accurate statements. Or….you are too lazy to exercise some due diligence and confirm what I said is true. Take your pick.
No, you are obviously the smartest guy in the room, probably every room you’re in. California is doing terrific! People are leaving in record numbers because they are too stupid to see how truly great things are. The state is practically bankrupt, it leads the nation in homelessness and illegal aliens, and taxes, but they’re killing it in every other way!
These are all the issues X will not be discussing here as they indefensible.
Everyone knows X is a smarty pants know it all somehow.
India: 1,4 billion election results known in 12 – 24 hours
California: 39 million election results known in one month or more.
The dullard, X, thinks California is doing a good job.
S. Meyer, you’re hilarious. I bet you did not even bother to research why that is and why your example fails.
India’s rapid count is achieved through exclusive in-person electronic voting, while California’s extended count is driven by high-security processing of physical mail-in ballots.
In India voting is performed almost entirely in person using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). When voting ends, election workers simply press a “Result” button on the digital control units, which displays total counts in minutes.
In California the state operates on a universal mail-in paper ballot system. Millions of physical paper ballots must be flat-sorted, verified by hand, and individually fed through scanners. Processing physical paper always takes vastly more time than reading a digital hard-drive.
India spreads its election over several weeks (or months) of phased, heavily guarded voting across the nation. Because the time-consuming logistics happen before counting day, the final tally can be executed simultaneously in under 24 hours.
California voting happens all at once, but the logistics happen after Election Day. California legally accepts mail ballots arriving up to 7 days late as long as they are postmarked on time, meaning the full pool of ballots does not even arrive at counting centers until a week after polls close.
You do realize they are entirely different systems, right? You’re smart enough to understand that…right?
Florida 24 million election votes known in 24 hours: 90+% results published within 30 minutes to two hours.
India: 1,4 billion election results known in 12 – 24 hours
California: 39 million election results known in one month or more.
You are a dullard who provides preposterous excuses.
Not excuses, facts.
Florida & India count faster because they verify voter IDs before a ballot is cast (at the door/via digital buttons).California uses universal mail-in paper ballots. By law, CA accepts ballots arriving up to 7 days post-election, then spends weeks conducting mandatory, bipartisan signature matching and manual 1% paper audits.
Speed does not equal integrity. A secure, verifiable paper trail simply takes longer to process than a digital button press or a strict arrival deadline.
Voting, elections simply do not function in a crime culture. Work on an alternative? It can’t be done. Until there’s a moral, ethical population government will be corrupt.
Btw, Bass won in a landslide after obtaining the progressive socialist, Raman’s votes. So cal voted for failure. So it is..
Nope, see? not facts. this whole thing you said is not true and is proof that you are a dullard.
So from your view it’s everyone else with a cheatable system, not CA. got it.
You ignorantly defend an insecure, fraud-prone voting system in California because you refuse to replicate models that work Why should anyone pay attention to you?
Is there no way to replace the one guy they have counting with a few more or are they just stupid?
X, your excuses for their poor performance are ridiculous and you avoid the one simple fact: They suck at counting votes and that’s their job! Of course inefficiencies in your world are somehow unable to be planned around but the rest of us know different. Different systems??? So you’re basically saying it’s impossible for the CA vote counts to go any faster and that’s ridiculous and everyone knows this. I’ll say it again to you, you are not doing well here with your lame and insincere takes.
As usual Meyer simply spouts MAGA lies. Now he is lying about elections in India.
The election in India is spread over 6 weeks. All ballots including electronic, paper and mail-in are collected during this period, but no actual counting takes place until all ballots are collected and verified.
Once collected, all ballots are then counted. The counting then takes one to two days.
California STARTS counting on election day, and continues to count for several weeks as as legally cast votes come in.
India takes just as long, if not longer, to collect the ballots. The difference lies in when the COUNTING starts. India does not start COUNTING until all ballots have been collected and verified.
If California was to use the same system as India it would still take several weeks to get a result.
Playing with idiots is tiring. If you don’t like India’s example, please consider Florida.
You don’t know what you are talking about, but we shouldn’t expect much from an anonymous moron. Because India lacks the resources and is so large with difficult terrain, voting takes place in different areas at different times. The ballots are immediately transferred in locked containers to a central facility and guarded with forces and TV. No one is permitted entry, but parties can have their own people watching from the outside, away from the ballots, so no cheating can occur and no extra ballots can be added, as is possible in California.
When the voting period ends, the ballots are counted in one day and reported. The cost per ballot in California is about 15 times higher. Try to put things in a better perspective. You won’t be smart, but perhaps you will sound a bit more intelligent.
As usual, the demented and mentally impaired Meyer fails to understand the issue.
He seems to think that India is a paragon example of how to run an election. He originally said that India counts all their ballots and gets a result in one day. He implied that India manages to achieve this on election day itself. Until I disabused him of this nonsense, he failed to realize that India does not have an “election day”. The election is spread over 6 weeks and no counting occurs until all ballots are collected. India most definitely does not count all the ballots on “election day”, although they do count all the ballots in one day, but 6 weeks after the start of the election.
If California is to follow the example of India, as the half-witted Meyer suggests, then they should simply hold all the ballots for several weeks, and then start counting, just like India.
In fact, California gets a result faster than India. The ONLY difference is that California counts votes as they come in.
This nonsense about India’s elections being better than California is simply a MAGA myth, and the fact that Meyer actually believes this nonsense simply proves that he is a non-thinking cultist following the dogma of his cult.
The really interesting thing about this latest absurd comment by Meyer is that now that he understands he was wrong about India counting all the results on “election day” he pivots to an equally nonsensical argument that India’s elections are somehow more secure and cost less. In his demented and twisted mind, he somehow believes that this pivot continues to set India as an example that California should follow.
So what exactly is it that you want.
Do you want an India style election, that is supposedly more secure and less expensive, or do you want California to count all the ballots in one day. If India has a more secure and less expensive election that takes 6 weeks, then you are in no position to complain that California takes too long to count the ballots. You can’t have it both ways, claiming that California takes too long, while holding up India as a better way to conduct the election that takes 6 weeks.
The Grandiloquent Fraud has returned to unload his supercilious accretions from our last conversation.
“Until I disabused him of this nonsense, he failed to realize that India does not have an “election day.”
Never mind his mendacity regarding who “disabused” whom, and concentrate on his innate stupidity. As previously explained, he knew little of the election process in India, so let me “disabuse” him of the notion that he ever understood it. Yes! India has one specific day for voting in each sector. The votes are taken under seal and with protection in standalone, tamper-proof voting vaults that are immediately taken to a secure facility while other areas vote. That facility has all the locked-up boxes guarded around the clock by troops and cameras. It does not permit any cheating from the inside, since all interested parties must remain outside of the secure perimeter.
When all the votes are in that secure facility, they are counted in a single day. To make it simple for the Fraud: the citizens in each sector vote on their designated day, and then the accumulated votes are counted in one day by EVMs not connected to the internet. This prevents what is now probably happening in California: cheating by Democrats.
In answer to your question, I want California to adopt the discipline found in India and Florida (the very example you ran away from): voting on one day, and synchronized counting on another. Two to three days total.
Final Grade: Self-confessed Liar and Technologically Illiterate, Puerile Gasbag.
Every step in this convoluted process is an opportunity for fraud.
How? You’re clearly searching for an excuse to bring up a conspiracy theory devoid of any evidence or facts. All you have is just suspicion fed by those who push the same conspiracy theories and destroy YOUR trust in the system. Because you may not be smart enough or think critically about how these systems work then you will forever be skeptical of anything more complicated than a two-step set of instructions.
and you have no valid excuse yet for why the CA count takes excruciatingly long. None. you have no reasons. and in many posts here instead of those missing facts you just question the intelligence of others. You’re slipping and you know it, you cannot control your egoism. YOU are not an expert on the CA voting system and everything you are saying here comes from that ignorance and a desire to defend lefty lunacy.
Then please explain how France can count 35 million paper ballots and have results the day after the election. THE ONLY reason for 100% mail in ballots is to rig the election especially when you don’t clean up the voter rolls
Dollar Bill,
France bans mail-in voting. Virtually all 35+ million voters must cast their paper ballots in person at their local polling stations on a single Sunday.
Because everyone votes in person, identity verification happens at the door before voting. Once the polls close at 8:00 PM, volunteers at thousands of decentralized local precincts immediately count the small pile of physical paper ballots in their specific room. They tally a few hundred ballots per station, log the results, and transmit the data to the Ministry of the Interior within hours.
California uses a universal mail-in paper system. Millions of physical paper ballots do not sit in neat, local polling places; they arrive via the postal service or secure drop boxes over a multi-day window.
Paper ballots and electronic counting is the modern way to do elections. CA’s system is designed to allow cheating and that’s why they use a different system. Everyone can see the opportunities in their system to tamper. Unless you want to tell me you believe only American citizens can vote and be required to prove it with ID. I know you won’t. you’re just defending a cheating system which is why you support illegals voting.
I agree. I’ve resisted the mail-in ballots ever since they began sending them to me. I used to mark my sample ballot and use it as a crib sheet when voting in person. I like voting in person because I’ve lived here many years and some poll workers always recognize me. Also I like voting on election day in case there’s an “October surprise” as with Swalwell and I don’t want the hassle of canceling a mail-in vote so I can do it over.
In 2020, the first year of the automatic mail-in ballots, I marked my mail-in ballot and took it to the polling place wondering whether I could vote it. There were people outside with a drop box, but I hadn’t signed the envelope so I couldn’t drop mine off and went inside to vote. One of those outside poll workers followed me inside and demanded that I turn over the mail-in ballot that I couldn’t drop in the box without a signed envelope. Apparently she thought I would use it to vote twice. It was a tense situation, but some of the poll workers inside knew me, waved her off, and let me vote a ballot they gave me.
There was also a terrible wildfire in 2020 and many people were displaced. So they turned the old polling places into voting centers where anyone in the county could vote. (There are roughly 100 different ballot types in the whole county, not just a few at each polling place as before.) I continued to vote in person at the same place.
This year for the first time, they allowed people to bring their marked mail-in ballot, check in at the poll, and just drop the filled-in ballot in a box. I have to admit I wonder how they can be sure I’m not shoving more than one ballot in. This was never a problem when they only sent a sample ballot because it was marked “sample” and was a slightly different size.
You probably thought you wrote an intelligent rebuttal to Turley’s article, but you actually confirmed exactly what he stated.
Couldn’t all of this be solved by simply requring ALL voters to simply show up IN PERSON and vote on Election DAY? End of problem!
It could, but ‘solving’ problems for who? The American voter? Why would CA want to make sure their votes are made only by legal citizens? Who would THAT benefit?
RIGHT. The state claims they need 36 days to counts all the votes.
Yes, they do. Why do you think that’s not a good thing? You want accuracy or sloppiness?
X, give it up. Gracias.
It’s not a binary choice and you know it.
We want no cheating and everyone knows this is the only way to cheat and so why do YOU support it? Why can’t they do elections like a normal state? You have no excuses. Defenders here implying it’s a manpower issue are insincere and that’s the ONLY argument? unbelievable. Think people. We don’t need more dummies like X here, use your noggin.
Silly you, Peter Hill, Svalez, X, proving how you like to use more than one identity. I was touched by the use of ‘Shane,’ one of your many prior aliases.
X, let me stop you right here: “It’s a big population and a LOT of candidates to consider”
please explain how that is in any way a valid excuse? Is the the vote counting bureaucracy just saving taxpayer money by employing a minimum of vote counters?
While you’re at it, maybe you can explain why the left is always trying to lower citizen’s expectations. Frugality?
Here comes Mr X to tell us that CA has the 4th largest economy blah, blah, blah.
When you mock NY, IL, NJ and MA for losing population to FL the left says it’s the weather and yet CA has the nicest weather in the nation and they are losing people for the first time in their history. X will say that there are people moving there too. HA! Tax payers leave as illegals, homeless people and other deadbeats arrive to garner free stuff. It’s called the doom loop.
HullBobby,
Here is a little inconvenient fact just came out, Texas tops California, New York, with the most Fortune 500 headquarters
https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_406f0a28-fa3d-4189-9e8e-d24c57815a57.html?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=offthepress&utm_campaign=home
And… so what?
More evidence companies, money and people are flowing OUT of the failed state of CA.
It is quite obvious to most. Except you.
Upstatefarmer,
Texas barely squeaked past California in total headquarters (57 to 56). However, a corporate headquarters is just an administrative office. When you look at the market value and sheer economic power of the companies, California completely dwarfs Texas. California is home to hyper-valuable tech behemoths like Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Nvidia—the latter of which just became the first-ever $4 trillion company. Texas simply does not possess corporate giants of that staggering financial scale.
You’re as crazy as X, farmer. You responses are stupid at best. If X has a crazy brother, its you. STFU.
Still butt hurt I point out facts?
This is your arguement for the FACT that there is an exodus from CA? THAT’S crazy!
Hullbobby mocks CA’s economy because he can’t handle objective reality. People leave CA due to high housing costs, not politics. Data shows inbound residents are overwhelmingly higher-educated and higher-earning than those leaving. Speed & rage aren’t facts.
Stupid generalization. We had three houses in CA. Tahoe, Ocean, Bay Area. Not rental properties -our sole use. Stupid Leftists running the state was simply too offensive to my educated sensibilities🤣
Hey X, connect the dots. Home prices are higher because of red tape, regulations and liberal policies. Gas prices are higher die to the policies. Go 1 mile over the border to AZ and gas is dollars cheaper.
X says people leave a beautiful location with glorious weather die to high costs without realizing the costs are high due to guys like him.
Hey genius, think 20-30 dollar minimum wages for kids flipping burgers will lower costs? Think regulations making building a house almost prohibitive helps? Think forcing oil companies to shutter their companies helps? Think inviting in 5 million illegals lowers healthcare or education?
Liberals kill anything they touch.
HullBobby,
Some more facts, California loses one taxpayer per minute, Florida gains
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/california-loses-one-taxpayer-minute-florida-gains
California says it lost $2 billion in state income taxes from earners leaving
“Foregone revenue increased more (three-fold) than net domestic outmigration of people (two-fold) because, prior to the pandemic, outmigration was concentrated among lower-income households,” continued the LAO. “Since then, more middle- and higher-income households have moved to other states, meaning the effect on state revenue has been greater because these tax filers tend to make larger income tax payments.”
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/california-says-it-lost-2-billion-state-income-taxes-earners-leaving
And more recent data, Which US States Gained The Most Residents In 2025
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-which-u-s-states-gained-the-most-residents-in-2025/
Tuesday’s June 2nd 2026 Election, wasn’t even close to being a ‘BIG ELECTION’, it was merely a STATE Primary Election.
But it goes to show you what will happen when the Big Election does happen (i.e.: State & National Elections – the 2028 United States presidential and congressional election). ‘Election Malfeasance’ (Vote Count delays) will not stop until the Powers-to-Be get what they want.
Which raises the question: Is it Democracy of the People or a Democracy-Show for the People?
They Keep the Myth alive.
Upstate, but X says it’s not true according to the AI of his choice.
Start with a simple question. If you wanted to design an electoral process that reliably produced a predetermined outcome, what would it look like? You would make it slow. You would make it opaque. You would build in enough uncertainty that no one could ever quite put their finger on it. You would make the process seem legitimate on election night and then extend it long enough that the final result could drift in the direction you needed. And you would make sure that anyone who questioned it could never quite prove intent.
California’s system matches that design almost perfectly. That is not an accusation. It is an observation. A $336 million elections budget in Los Angeles alone. 1,100 staff. Two weeks to count votes. Results that shift steadily in one direction the longer the count runs.
You do not have to prove fraud to indict a system. The test for a legitimate election is simple. Can the people who are supposed to be sovereign actually verify the result? Speed matters. Transparency matters. Traceability matters. Not because we assume cheating. Because a system that could conceal it has already broken faith with the voter.
The standard for consent of the governed is higher than “we cannot prove it was rigged.” The burden runs the other way. Show us a count that is fast, transparent, and verifiable. Or admit the system was not built for the voters.
Olly, wow talk about conspiracy theory laden ideas.
The shift in late-counted votes is not a glitch or fraud—it is a well-documented statistical reality driven entirely by voter habits.
Republicans overwhelmingly prefer voting in person on Election Day, meaning their votes are processed and posted first.
Democrats and Independents disproportionately use mail-in ballots and late drop-offs, which legally require days of manual signature verification before they can be scanned.
Counting every legal ballot takes time. Conflating careful, methodical security checks with “opacity” is fundamentally dishonest. A fast election night tally might satisfy a craving for instant gratification, but a secure democracy prioritizes an accurate, verified count over speed.
That seems to be a hallmark of Republicans, instant gratification, immediate results, now, now, now. Or something is afoot. Essentially a lack of patience. Anything taking longer than they expect and it’s immediately evidence of fraud.
California open-observation laws guarantee transparency through structured bipartisan and public oversight.
Representatives from every qualified political party, bona fide citizen groups, and media organizations have a legal right to observe all phases of an election.
This includes witnessing the pre-election testing of voting machines, the retrieval of ballots from drop boxes, the processing of mail-in envelopes, the hand-adjudication of damaged ballots, and the final tally.
The California Secretary of State mandates that observers be allowed “sufficiently close access” to clearly see the ballot envelopes, the signatures on them, and how workers handle them. Bipartisan observers sit close enough to verify that workers are correctly matching signatures against voter registration files.
Election officials are legally required to provide at least 48 hours of advance public notice specifying the exact dates, times, and places where mail-in ballots will be processed and counted.
Major operations, like the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center, publish their complete public observation schedules online, allowing any citizen or party representative to walk in and watch without needing backroom permission.
Observers do not just sit passively; they have the legal right to challenge whether election workers are following established procedures. If a partisan observer notices a signature that looks like a mismatch but a worker approves it, the observer can lodge a formal challenge. County supervisors must pause, review the ballot, and log the challenge in accordance with the law.
There’ a lot more going on than Turley lets on. But that doesn’t stop the conspiracy theory fans from jumping to conclusions and assumptions about a process they have no idea how it works. Especially those outside the state.
The slow pace of the vote count is caused by the time required to maintain these transparency steps for millions of ballots, ensuring that political party representatives can inspect the work.
Now, would that make sense from a thoroughness standpoint?
X, you are just so smart! You know everything! Construction! Being a landlord! The law and the Constitution! College admissions! And now, how to run elections! You are amazing!
Are you admitting you’re…dumb?
X is just so smart! He knows everything! Just the other day he knew when I was jealous of him being so smart! I really do hope he starts his own blog! I will read it everyday! I will believe everything he says!
“Counting every legal ballot takes time” says X. SURE, it’s just a manpower issue, not enough people to count them. sure that’s why. X would have us believe there’s one old guy in a back room making sure every count goes through him.
THIS is X’s only argument in support of CA’s excuses for failure. X knows nothing about CA’s vote process.
Did you know that some parasites have great linguistic abilities and often are called useful idiots? Congratulations.
“The shift in late-counted votes is not a glitch or fraud—it is a well-documented statistical reality driven entirely by voter habits.”
More excuses from the dullard. The late counting is most likely an attempt to adjust the ballots so a Democrat wins. That is why they devised the inefficient and insecure California election system. That is why they expanded a lot of the fraud to other states.
S. Meyer, “more likely”? Meaning you have absolutely no idea. You’re just guessing. Maybe you should try to do some actual research and find out rather than assume. Because when you say “more likely” it shows you’re not really sure that what you are saying may be true. I posted legal requirements which you can easily look up.
Calling me a “dullard” while posting an assumption after ai posted legal requirements easily fact checked seems to be making you the “dullard”. Good grief.
Your last sentence is rife with conspiracy theory malarkey.
Good Lord, you have become such a negative, retaliatory, silly presence on this site! First thing in the morning you start in with the criticism, usually against the good professor, although you can’t seem to stay away. Chill out.
You cant tell X to chill out! He is smarter than Turley! He knows everything about the law and the Constitution! He knows all about construction! And what it takes to be a landlord! He knows all about college admissions and college faculty! And now he knows all about elections! He is the smartest person he knows!
Lin, complaining about someone posting a counter-argument on a blog dedicated to free speech and legal debate is completely absurd.
Jonathan Turley is a public figure, a constitutional scholar, and a fierce advocate for the First Amendment. His entire career is built on the principle that ideas should be rigorously tested, debated, and criticized in the public square. It is incredibly ironic that you want to police this comment section and tell people to “stay away” or “chill out” just because they point out flaws in his columns.
Posting an opposing view isn’t “negative” or “retaliatory”—it is the definition of a debate. If Professor Turley’s arguments are as airtight as you think they are, they should easily survive a collision with a different perspective. A comment section shouldn’t be an uncritical echo chamber where readers just nod along in agreement.
If you disagree with the substance of the criticisms posted here, you are entirely free to counter them with facts of your own. But trying to shut down dissenting voices simply because they post early or often completely misses the point of the very free speech principles this blog defends.
Thanks.
even “Thanks.” is copycatted and learned on this blog. Something X never used to use. Such a loser, that X.
X is this is a debate, where are your facts? slipping.
“It is incredibly ironic that you want to police this comment section and tell people to “stay away” or “chill out” just because they point out flaws in his columns.”
Lin is correct. You should chill out, but I say continue making a fool of yourself. It gives me and others a good laugh.
You missed his main point. If this is your repeat reading here, X, I suggest you try again, you are slipping and resorting to only questioning others intelligence and calling everything a conspiracy. which really let’s your smart-guy mask slip. Maybe you should go over these posts a few more times or continue to appear as a dullard.
“more likely”? Meaning you have absolutely no idea.”
Saying ‘more likely’ is an assessment of probability. A dullard like you doesn’t understand these things.
To take that a step further. There is broad agreement on what a legitimate electoral system is supposed to produce. Every eligible vote counted accurately. Timely results. A process that is transparent and observable. An audit trail that is verifiable.
Those are not partisan goals. They are the minimum conditions under which the loser accepts the result and the winner has the authority to govern.
Here is the principle that follows. Any element introduced into the process that negatively impacts those measurable outputs has no business being there. You do not need to prove bad intent. You just need to show it degrades the result. If it makes the count slower, less transparent, or harder to verify, it fails the test. Remove it.
Run California’s system through that filter. Late mail ballot acceptance days after election day. Extended counting windows. Drop boxes with limited chain of custody. Ask of each element: does this make the system more accurate, more transparent, more auditable, more timely? If the answer is no, the element fails.
That is not a conspiracy theory. It is a quality control standard.
And the burden is not on critics to prove fraud. The burden is on the system’s defenders to demonstrate that every element serves the stated goals.
Until they can do that, the system has already failed the only test that matters.
Olly,
In data processing and auditing, speed is often the enemy of accuracy. California’s delayed count is caused by strict, mandatory security protocols designed to prevent mistakes. Forcing election workers to rush through millions of paper ballots to meet an arbitrary, speedy deadline would directly compromise the thoroughness of signature checks and manual paper reconciliations.
You claim California’s elements—like late mail ballot acceptance and extended counting windows—make the system “less transparent or harder to verify.”
The exact opposite is true. The extended window exists entirely because of rigorous transparency and audit laws [Cal. Elec. Code § 15372, 15360]. California requires a 1% manual hand-count audit of paper ballots to verify machine tallies, alongside a multi-week “curing” period where voters are legally allowed to fix signature mismatches [Cal. Elec. Code § 3019]. These elements make the system vastly more auditable than systems that rush to destroy or seal ballots immediately after Election Day.
Accepting ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive up to 7 days later ensures that voters are not disenfranchised by regular postal service delays [Cal. Elec. Code § 3020]. Olly’s filter would prioritize the convenience of a fast timeline over the constitutional right of an eligible citizen to have their legally cast ballot counted.
You claim drop boxes have “limited chain of custody.” Nope. Did you ever look up their chain of custody procedures?
Drop boxes in California are subject to rigorous, log-booked regulations. They feature dual-lock systems, are manufactured with heavy-gauge steel, and must be emptied by two-person bipartisan teams who document every transfer with signed chain-of-custody forms. Treating a secure, audited ballot drop box as a security gap is a factual error.
You state that others don’t need to prove fraud; officials must prove that every element perfectly satisfies all criteria simultaneously (including speed).
By making “speed” an absolute requirement alongside “accuracy,” you create a trap where a system is deemed a failure no matter what it does. If a state counts fast but misses signature mismatches, it fails. If it checks signatures rigorously but takes two weeks, it fails. This is an impossible standard designed to automatically delegitimize the process.
You demand things that are contradictory to the result you want because you’re just assuming things instead of researching them.
You have exposed your ignorance with your ‘facts’:
“In data processing and auditing, speed is often the enemy of accuracy. ”
You have no idea how an election works in just about every place BUT Commiefornia’s backward system designed to cheat.
They use computers to count! They count fast!
Some of the first communists were luddites to the extreme too. They did not understand that technology improves man’s lives, dumb as they were, so they melted the tractors into hoes so humans could do the work instead and everyone starved.
“In data processing and auditing, speed is often the enemy of accuracy. “
Speed is a relative term, so in this instance you, the dullard, are wrong.
California is a lost cause. Although beautiful state with vistas of mountains and coastal paradise, they keep nominating charlatans to run their state, which is nothing more than those smart enough to fleece the taxpayers who are stupid enough to continue to vote for those in power.
Come On Man! Look Kinkos just finished printing the 50,000 completed unsigned ballots for delivery to the LA County Registrar’s Loading Dock and the 2:30am delivery was delayed by an hour because of the shoot out on the Freeway. However, counting has resumed now that the pallets have been placed in a ‘secure area’ right? The fix (oops I mean the final count) will be in by next week sometime unless Kinkos receives another order!! Haha.
You summed it up, using the same words twice. “…voters shrug, as if they can demand no more from their elected officials than subpar performance.” You also carefully avoided the fact that, in all the places you used as illustrations, there is a commonality. DEMOCRATS! Sadly, these places allow ridiculous decisions, dysfunctional governance and totally inept oversight. They blunder into cosmic level problems, then demand that taxpayers from the rest of the country bail them out, never recognizing or admitting their culpability in the issue. This is why those of us in the rest of the country have become so angry at these places and the politicians on the national level who won’t hold them accountable and force them to suffer from their monumental failures. Those of us who live in places where logic, discipline and common sense rule our decisions have a phrase we find appropriate. “Let them eat cake!”
Your post reminds me of the old adage that says. . .”A fool and his money are soon parted.”
Voting in California this primary season is testing the California voting system to the max. Clearly, they’ve allowed Becerra to overtake Hilton. With Hilton on top, the machine politicos would be extremely worried about the general election. No doubt they are pondering whether to allow Steyer to also overtake Hilton -just to be on the safe side. At no time are they concerned about waste, fraud, and abuse, all three being essential parts of machine politics.
I read an article where the unions are suing the state to allow the employees to continue working from home. They claim that driving to work will do environmental damage and an environmental review is necessary.
So if they are staying home and working, how can they count the ballots at the office?
the illegal immigrants are helping with that
Give them a break. Difficult to count votes before they’re created. Plus it’s the first time they’ve had to do it in a while, so they’re a bit rusty. Although I do admire your marital strategies. Low expectations is the most any husband can hope for.
Perhaps democracy was a mistake after all?
No it was not a mistake. Union control of a state is what the problem is. I am not saying unions are bad however in Ca. they do basically control all aspects of the state operations. Thus long delays and cost overruns.
People complain that the IRS settlement was just Trump negotiating with himself –,as if we had a unitary executive. Yet every government employee contract in California was produced by the Democratic Party negotiating with itself. And few even realize it.
Democracy is a mistake! we should go back to a representative republic that respects ONLY individual’s rights instead of this mob-rule anarchy we have violating them.
It looks like establishing the woke paradise is harder than expected.
It takes time to cheat and know the exact number of votes you need to fake to win.
You beat me to the same comment.