The Facts

California’s 2026-27 budget sets aside $29 million for county staffing, equipment, and technology to speed ballot counting, plus $10 million for voter education and $750,000 to fight election misinformation. The funding surfaced as lawmakers finalized the deal, in a Chronicle report by Sara DiNatale.

The Context

California’s count is slow for structural reasons, but it's been heading in the right direction. Counties have up to 30 days to canvass votes, and they must keep processing provisional ballots, and count mail ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive up to 7 days after the election. They also have to deal with matching ballot envelope signatures to voters' signature on file - a lengthy and mostly manual process.

A recent California Voter Foundation report argued that better equipment, staffing, voter education, and faster in-person ballot processing could shorten the count without making voting harder.

The GrowSF Take

Faster results are good government. California should protect broad ballot access and still expect a speedy count. This budget is a step forward, but it only partly funds the fixes counties and advocates say they need.