Steve Hilton urges Gavin Newsom to fix California’s backlog of ballots and fast response groups
California gubernatorial front-runner Steve Hilton is urging Governor Gavin Newsom to create emergency response teams to help counties struggling with voter backlogs.
With hundreds of thousands of ballots still awaiting processing days after the June 2 primary, Hilton unveiled a proposal to create an “Emergency Election Count Accelerator Corps,” a federal effort designed to fill election offices with additional manpower and resources.
Hilton says the goal is to deliver complete and certified election results by 8 p.m. June 11, just 48 hours after the deadline for mail-in ballots.
“California is the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to election reporting. We are the fourth largest economy in the world, home to Silicon Valley and some of the most advanced technology in the world, yet government officials need a month to count less than 10 million votes,” he said.
“It’s crazy. Every election brings the same excuses, the same delays, and the same collapse of public trust. Californians deserve better.”
The proposal comes as frustration grows over the state’s discredited vote-counting system. California typically takes weeks to finalize election results, even though fewer than 10 million votes were cast in the primary.
Hilton pointed to India’s ability to count hundreds of millions of votes in a single day as evidence that California’s lengthy counting process is unacceptable in a nation that prides itself on technological innovation and economic power.
The issue has drawn particular attention in Los Angeles County, where the California Post recently toured a 144,000-square-foot ballot processing center and saw many empty workspaces despite a backlog of more than 700,000 ballots.
Large sections of desks remained unused, chairs remained empty and the areas designated for manual review of votes appeared to be inactive. The county’s election service receives about $336 million a year and has more than 1,100 budgeted positions.
Under Hilton’s plan, available federal employees in non-essential administrative positions would be temporarily assigned to election offices in counties experiencing significant delays. District electoral “surgical teams” will also be formed to be deployed quickly to districts facing major backlogs.
The Election Count Accelerator Fund will reimburse counties for overtime, extended shifts and weekend operations aimed at speeding up vote processing. Hilton’s proposal insists that no election rules, security procedures or vote counting standards would change.
The emergency plan is intended as a short-term solution, but Hilton says broader reforms are needed to restore hope in California’s elections.
