A week after Election Day the control of the U.S. House depends on a little over a dozen races in which winners are still to be determined.

Nine states still have uncalled races for the House, and some are so close that they may be headed to a recount.

California is next. California has about half the House races that are still to be decided. The state only counts around three quarters of its votes.

It’s not unusual, nor is it unexpected. The nation’s largest state has consistently been among the most slow to announce all of its election results. Compare this to Florida, the nation’s third largest state, which completed its vote counting four days after Election Day.

Four years ago, Florida announced the results of almost 99% of votes cast within hours of the polls closing. California had almost one third of its ballots uncounted by the time election night came around. The state updated its count almost every day until Dec. 3, more than a month after Election Day.

The Constitution lays out the broad principles of electing a federal government but leaves the specifics to the individual states. State lawmakers and election officials make decisions about these details that affect many things, including how voters vote, how fast results are tabulated and released, and how officials keep voters’ trust in the process.

California and Florida have different election officials who set priorities and emphasize different concerns. This is why there’s a gap in when they can finalize their counts. Here are some differences.

California counts

California lawmakers designed their elections in order to increase accessibility and turnout. Californians are given a lot more time to vote, whether it is because they receive their ballots at home automatically, have until Election Day before they can turn them in, or several days after to fix any issues that may occur with the ballot. This comes at the cost of not knowing the final count until after the polls have closed.

“Our priority is to maximize the participation of active registered voters,” said Democratic Assemblymember Marc Berman. He authored the bill 2021 that permanently changed the state to mail-only elections. This means that things will move a bit slower. In a world that is geared towards instant gratification I believe it’s worth it to take a bit of time to make sure our democracy works and creates a system in which everyone can be involved.

California, a state that has a long tradition of absentee voting, began moving towards all-mail election systems in the last decade. The count will be delayed almost invariably by all-mail systems. Mail ballots are subject to additional verification procedures, including opening each ballot individually and validating it. This can make them take longer to count than ballots that have been cast at a polling station.

California adopted a law in 2016 that allows counties to opt-in to all-mail voting before it is implemented statewide temporarily in 2020, and then enshrined in law for the 2022 election.

According to studies, the first states that implemented all-mail voting – Oregon and Washington — saw higher voter turnout. Melissa Michelson is a political science professor and dean of California’s Menlo College. She has published on voter mobilization.

The thousands of Californians who have dropped off their mail-in ballots during Election Day in recent years has created a bottleneck at election night. California averaged 38% of votes after Election Day in the five general elections it held over the last five years. In the midterm elections of 2022, the state counted half its votes after Election Day two years ago.

Mail ballot deadlines have been extended, resulting in slower counts. California introduced its first postmark date in 2015. This means that California can count mail votes that arrive after Election Day, as long as they are received by the Postal Service before Election Day. Berman explained that the deadline lets the state treat the mailbox like a dropbox, allowing it to not punish voters who have cast their ballots correctly but were affected by postal delays.

In the beginning, ballots received within three days before the election were considered to be cast on time. California will not know the number of ballots cast in California until November 12th, because ballots could arrive up to one week after Election Day. California will count ballots until at least the end of that week, as some ballots that arrive up to this point may still be valid.

How Florida counts

Florida’s electoral system is designed for quick and efficient tabulation. After the disastrous 2000 presidential elections, in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided a dispute over a recount and declared George W. Bush the winner of the state, Florida moved to standardize and improve its election systems.

Bill Posey (a Republican Rep.), who was a state senator and the sponsor of Florida Election Reform Act of 2000, explained that the optical ballot scanners mandated in each precinct achieved the law’s two goals — counting all legal votes, as well as ensuring voters have confidence their votes were counted. This “most important” change will eliminate “hanging chads”. The scanners aggregate and read the results of paper ballots. They immediately throw out any with mistakes.

Florida has set deadlines to ensure that ballots do not arrive after the official presses “go” on tabulator machines. Absentee ballots are subject to a deadline. If they do not arrive before 7 pm local time on Election Day, the ballots will not be counted.

Michael T. Morley is a professor of electoral law at Florida State University College of Law. He pointed out that Florida officials can begin processing ballots before the polls close, but they cannot count them. This speeds up the process compared to states that do not allow officials process mail ballots prior to Election Day.

Morley stated that “they can confirm the validity of votes, confirm their count and run them through machines.” “They can’t even press the button to tally.”

Florida has taken steps to prevent a long-lasting back and forth on problematic ballots. Optic scanners at the precinct can catch certain problems such as when a voter selects too many candidates. These issues can be corrected on-site. A voter who has returned a ballot that is mismatched or lacking a signature can submit an affidavit until 5 pm two days after the vote. California allows voters to wait up to four weeks following the election.