California gubernatorial frontrunner Steve Hilton is urging Governor Gavin Newsom to create emergency rapid-response teams to assist counties struggling with major ballot-counting backlogs.
With hundreds of thousands of ballots still awaiting processing days after the June 2 primary, Hilton is unveiling a proposal to establish an “Emergency Election Count Accelerator Corps,” a state-run effort designed to flood election offices with additional manpower and resources
Hilton says the goal is to deliver complete and verified election results by 8 p.m. on June 11, just 48 hours after the deadline for receiving 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 on earth, yet government bureaucrats need a month to count fewer than 10 million ballots,” he said.
“It’s insane. Every election brings the same excuses, the same delays, and the same collapse in public confidence. Californians deserve better.”
The proposal comes as frustration mounts over the state’s sluggish vote-counting operation. California routinely takes weeks to finalize election results, even though fewer than 10 million ballots were cast in the primary.
Hilton has pointed to India’s ability to count hundreds of millions of votes in a single day as evidence that California’s prolonged counting process is unacceptable for a state 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 sprawling 144,000-square-foot ballot-processing center and observed numerous empty workstations despite a backlog of more than 700,000 ballots.
Large sections of desks sat unused, chairs remained vacant and areas designated for manual ballot review appeared idle. The county’s election operation receives nearly $336 million annually and has more than 1,100 budgeted positions.
Under Hilton’s plan, available state employees from non-essential administrative positions would be temporarily assigned to county election offices experiencing significant delays. Regional election “surge teams” would also be created to rapidly deploy to counties facing the largest backlogs.
An Election Count Accelerator Fund would reimburse counties for overtime, expanded shifts and weekend operations aimed at speeding up ballot processing. Hilton’s proposal stresses that no election laws, security procedures or vote-counting standards would change.
The emergency plan is intended as a short-term solution, but Hilton argues broader reforms are needed to restore confidence in California elections.
