WASHINGTON - The Committee on House Administration's held a Full Committee Hearing titled, “Why the Wait? Unpacking California’s Untimely Election Counting Process.” 

Witnesses: 
  • Mrs. Ashlee Titus, Partner at Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLP
  • The Honorable Don Palmer, Election Assistance Commission Chairman
  • Mr. Austin Gilbert, Right Choice Strategies CEO
  • Mrs. Rebecca Nowatchik, Secure Families Initiative Director of External Partnerships
In case you missed it, here are the top takeaways:
1. Issues with ballots arriving after Election Day

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): When I was at L.A. Central Count, I found this really interesting because I watched ballots arrive by mail into the system 3 days after, as I noted, about 900,000 total ballots were somewhere in the process of being counted, or being validated, I observed the signature verification which I will come to that in a second, but is it your testimony that if USPS doesn't date the envelope, an individual then opens the ballot, the voter is not required to date the ballot in California under California law, but if they do date the ballot and they date it by Election Day it would still count - is that accurate?

Mrs. Ashlee Titus: Yes.

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): So the real check isn't that it was in, it's a trust system that the individual who dated the ballot, dated it on the correct day, right?

Mrs. Ashlee Titus: Correct.

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): And so if somebody dated it by Election Day, USPS didn't stamp that with a postal date stamp, it would count?

Mrs. Ashlee Titus: Yes

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): And USPS doesn't date 100% of their mail?

Mrs. Ashlee Titus: Correct. 

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): Yes, it sounds like a problem and the the way to fix this, of course, would just be to require that it's collected by Election Day. I went to high school, I think a lot of us did, and when a paper was due, when did we write the paper? When it was due. So if you just say it has to be in by Election Day, it shifts that. 
Click the image or here to view Chairman Steil's Q&A. 

2. Why does California use signature verification?

Rep. Stephanie Bice (OK-05): We want people to have confidence in our elections and that means timely information, that means a quick turnaround on counting those ballots. So for me, I also think that California should consider actually moving some of these dates up. Why are we not allowing more early in-person voting. It was mentioned there was one day, Saturday, that you can in-person vote. Why not tell people - your ballot needs to be in by Election Day and by the way, we're going to have additional in-person voting days to be able to allow for that. Mr. Gilbert, you mentioned Californians maintenance or rather miss-maintenance of voter rolls and recommended actions to improve them. How many signatures do we think that California has on file for verification and how old are they?

Mr. Gilbert: Typically, every voter has about 4 to 5 signatures on file. Every time you change something at the DMV or you submit another voter registration when you move, those would be updated and added permanently to your voter file.

Rep. Stephanie Bice (OK-05): I think this sort of proves my point that your signature may change over time and certainly that verification process, I think, becomes much more complicated. As a state that doesn't do signature verification and believes that we do elections like right, I'd like to see that changed.
Click the image or here to view Rep. Bice's Q&A. 

3. What steps can California take to improve ballot collection?

Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15): Chairman Palmer, you previously served as a Florida Director of Elections and the Commonwealth of Virginia's chief election official. What is the starkest contrast between how those states collect their ballots and California?

The Honorable Don Palmer: I think the starkest difference or the contrast is sort of the results, early voting and Election Day, plus pre-processed absentees are all those are ready to go on Election Night. The mail ballot model and ballot box issue allows those ballots to be returned either by the mail on Election Day, which will then take 7 to 10 days into the certification period, or a ballot box, which then those ballots still need to be processed. So you already have the results when you're voting in person or early voting or pre-prost absentee with some deadline, those ballots are ready to go and those results will be ready to go on Election Night. If you are waiting to receive mail ballots you then have to go through the process of signature comparison, processing those ballots and the cure period. So that is why it takes so long and a mail ballot model takes longer. A large populations and large counties, you're going to have a large number of issues in getting those ballots tabulated and the results out. So it just pushes the results later into the period.

Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15): What would you say then are procedures or model legislation in California should adopt from states that you previously served?

The Honorable Don Palmer: So I believe the pre-processing of absentee or mail ballots is important, early voting that allows the tabulation of a ballot on site, and then a healthy Election Day so you give options to voters. I also think that there should be a deadline for absentee or mail ballots prior to Election Day and then they should be returned by Election Day that allows voters to know that if they don't have the option to return the ballot by mail or absentee, that they can still vote in person. So that allows the system to work. We relying too much on the USPS - USPS is having major issues. They continue to extend their service dates, and that has a direct impact on elections and voters. You'll find in a lot of mail ballot states that voters no longer trust the United States Postal Service to get their ballots in on time. So they're going to return it in-person or a ballot box. Again, when you return a ballot by mail box, it still has to go through that entire  processing as if it was a mail ballot. So, I think that those are some of my recommendations for a state trying to make the process more efficient on the front end. 
Click the image or here to view Rep. Miller's Q&A.