California Vote Counting Faces Delays Amidst Competitive Races

Source reports published 19 Oct 2026, 10:00 am – 21 Oct 2026, 5:47 am AEST

California's congressional races are expected to take longer to finalize due to a combination of factors including a large number of competitive districts and a slow vote count dominated by mail-in ballots. This creates a potential for misinformation and scrutiny.

What happened

• California's vote counting process is experiencing delays primarily due to the high volume of mail-in ballots and the state's competitive congressional districts.
• Election officials are processing millions of ballots, many of which are received on Election Day and require verification.
• This ‘pig in the python’ problem, as described by California Voter Foundation’s Kim Alexander, involves a logjam of ballots needing to be processed.
• The state allocated $40 million to speed up the count, but the process is still slower than in-person voting due to the need to verify signatures and ensure ballots are cast by the intended voter.
• Karl Rove highlighted the situation, noting that races in states like Arizona and Utah, with higher Republican margins, are called quickly, while California’s diverse and competitive landscape leads to prolonged counting.
• David Axelrod emphasized the potential for conspiracy theories to emerge, particularly given President Trump’s past targeting of California and the state’s reliance on mail-in ballots.

Original reporting

• NPR: The real reason it's going to take a while to know who won in some midterm races
  2026-10-19T00:00:00+00:00
• PBS NewsHour: Karl Rove and David Axelrod give their predictions for 12 key midterm races
  2026-10-20T19:47:51+00:00