CHRIS CRUCIAL: California’s Vote-Counting Nightmare 🤦

PLUS: Gaetz, out. 👋

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1. Come on, California! 😭

The 2024 election ended 17 days ago. Donald Trump was declared president in the early hours of November 6. He has already announced the bulk of his Cabinet picks. Heck, Matt Gaetz was nominated and withdrew as Attorney General already!

And yet, California is still in the process of counting votes. Yes, still.

According to the Washington Post’s election results page, 97.8% of California’s votes have been counted as of Friday afternoon.

I have been thinking about writing this piece for at least a week. But I have held my tongue — and my typing fingers. Because, yes, California is gigantic. It is by far the most populous state in the country and already 15 million votes have been counted.

But I have contained my rage for as long as possible. This is absolutely unacceptable for a modern presidential election in the most important and influential country in the world. It is ridiculous.

And, yes, I know all the reasons — beyond the state’s massive population — that make it harder to count votes in California than in other states.

This, via the New York Times, lays it out well:

The state is one of a handful nationwide where every registered, active voter is mailed a ballot. Mail-in ballots take longer to process than those cast in person.

Election offices must verify that the signature on each envelope matches the voter’s signature on file. Instead of throwing out ballots that were filled out improperly, election workers in California spend days calling voters and giving them another chance to verify their signatures so that their votes can be counted.

This process, known as ballot curing, occurs in half of U.S. states. But because nearly all of California’s ballots are mailed or hand-delivered in envelopes, the verification process is more tedious than elsewhere.

And unlike most other states, California counts ballots that arrive up to a week late, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.

And, yes, I am, obviously, in favor of procedures and laws that make it as easy as possible for the largest number of eligible voters to vote. That is good for democracy.

But, do you know what else is good for democracy? Counting votes in an expeditious manner. And 17 days is simply too long.

Florida, by contrast, a state where almost 11 million votes were cast, finished counting all of its ballots within four days of the election ending.

To the people who say “Who cares when they finish counting the votes, we know Kamala Harris won the state,” I say this: What about the battle for the House majority?

Of the three uncalled House races, two are in California (the 13th district and the 45th district). And, as the Associated Press noted on November 12:

One week after Election Day, control of the U.S. House rests on just over a dozen races where winners have not yet been determined.

Nine states have at least one uncalled House race, some of which are so close they are headed to a recount.

Then there’s California. About half of the yet-to-be-decided House races are in the state, which has only counted about three-quarters of its votes statewide.

How is this a thing? Especially when, due to Trump’s decision to name several GOP House members to roles in his new administration, the GOP majority in the House could be hanging by a seat or three?

You simply cannot convince me that a compromise between allowing as many eligible voters as possible to cast a ballot and counting those ballots in a timely manner cannot be reached.

Simply throwing up our collective hands and saying “Well, that’s just how California does it” isn’t good enough! In a political environment in which trust in elections is already way, way too low, having our largest state take more than two weeks to count all the votes in a presidential election year is unacceptable.

I give you this tweet by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene:

Is there any evidence to back up MTG’s claim? No! Her only “proof” is that it takes too long to count the votes. And trust me she will not be the last elected official to make this sort of claim.

California Gov. Gavin Newwsom has two years left on his term. Fix this. Make it a priority. This is a disaster waiting to happen.

2. Matt Gaetz says goodbye to DC

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz will not be returning to Congress when it reconvenes early next year but did hint Friday that he is not done with politics.

“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch,” Gaetz told Trump-aligned pundit Charlie Kirk.

Which: 👀

As I told you over the last few days, there was NO way Gaetz was coming back to Congress to serve again in the 119th Congress. He resigned from the current Congress to avoid the release of a potentially damaging House Ethics Committee report into allegations he had sex with a minor and used illegal drugs.

Given that, the idea that he would decide to serve in the next Congress was always ridiculous.

What is not ridiculous is that Gaetz has his eye on another political office — namely the open Florida governor’s seat in 2026. Gov. Ron DeSantis will be term limited and Gaetz has made no secret of his interest in the job.

Back in May, he told the Tampa Bay Times this when asked about the governor’s race:

President Trump keeps telling my wife she’d make a great First Lady of Florida. I keep telling him my only political focus is his re-election. Without that, we don’t have a country.

Gaetz’s father, not for nothing, is Don Gaetz, the powerful former state Senate president who was elected back to that chamber earlier this month.

Who might get in Gaetz’s way? DeSantis’ wife, Casey, is someone with major political ambitions — and more charisma than her husband. Rep. Byron Donalds is also mentioned.

3. Friday AMA

Every Friday, I do a livestream at my YouTube channel — answering questions for the better part of an hour. Today’s was super fun — lots of Matt Gaetz and Trump Cabinet questions! You can check it out below or subscribe — it’s FREE — to my YouTube channel so you get alerted any time I post a new video.

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“We cannot be mesmerized by the worst things that we see happening. We will be inclined to react with shock by some things that are done precisely with the intent of shocking us, we need to move very quickly through the shock.” — Pete Buttigieg’s advice to Democrats in the wake of the 2024 election

ONE GOOD CHART

Two thirds of Americans don’t think Donald Trump is a good role model, according to new poll numbers from Pew.

SONG OF THE DAY

Twenty years ago, TV On The Radio released their seminal album “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes.” To celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, the band played “Staring at the Sun” on Jimmy Fallon last night. They rocked it.

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