Despite the Trump administration’s accusations that California intentionally delayed the vote tallying process in the primary elections, Los Angeles County has never counted ballots faster, an expert from the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office said.

The registrar’s office – which administers elections in LA County – received more than two million ballots during the primary and counted almost all of them within seven days, said Mike Sanchez, the communications manager for the registrar’s office.

News organizations such as the Associated Press call election winners, not the registrar’s office, Sanchez said. AP News must be fully confident that a race has been won before calling the results, meaning close races can take longer to call, according to the LA Times.

President Donald Trump accused California’s Democratic party of stealing the June gubernatorial and LA mayoral primaries, blaming mail-in ballots and alleged delays in vote tallying, according to his Truth Social posts. The Department of Justice sued California on Oct. 15, alleging that thousands of likely noncitizens are registered to vote.

Federal law enforcement arrested 11 noncitizens living in California who are allegedly registered to vote, according to the DOJ.

There is no evidence of fraud or misconduct in California’s elections, said Richard Hasen, a professor at the School of Law and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project, an initiative that researches and advocates for election integrity.

County elections offices verify ballots as they arrive and tally them on election night, Sanchez said.

He added that ballots that come in on Election Day cause a bottleneck, and LA County receives over one million ballots on Election Day alone.

“If California changed its rules tomorrow and said we’ll only count ballots that arrive by Election Day, the count would still be pretty much as slow as it is right now,” Hasen said.

Voter turnout increased by three percentage points after California adopted universal mail-in voting, said Mindy Romero, the director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, a research center that studies elections and civic engagement. Turnout specifically increased among 18- to 24-year-old voters, who are new to voting and benefit from decreased barriers to casting their ballots, she added.

All registered voters in California receive a vote-by-mail ballot – a practice that began in 2020 and was made permanent in 2021, according to the California governor’s website. Vote-by-mail ballots are valid for California’s general election as long as they are postmarked on or before Nov. 3 and arrive by Nov. 10, according to the California Secretary of State website.

In the June primary, 89% of California voters used vote-by-mail ballots, according to the California Secretary of State website.

Unlike ballots cast in person, county elections offices must verify the signature on each vote-by-mail ballot, Sanchez said. If automated signature verification devices cannot make a confident match, the signature is then manually reviewed by election officials, who, after one more attempt at manual review, then reach out to the voter if they cannot verify the signature, he added.

“That process, which is designed to actually ensure that there is no fraud, or just a mistake or error, means that it can take a little bit longer for California election officials to finish the vote count,” Romero said.

Ballots with signature issues make up a small portion of total ballots cast, Sanchez said, adding that elections offices are legally able to receive voters’ corrected ballots up to two days before certifying election results.

County elections officials had until July 2 to certify the June primary results, according to the California Secretary of State website. They will have until Dec. 3 to certify the November general election results.

Ballots with flaws such as tears, wrinkles and stains are more difficult to process, Sanchez said. Elections officials directly replicate each vote on an untarnished ballot – a process that is reviewed by three levels of supervision, he added.

“These are ballots that are valid, and as long as they pass all of the verification elements, we want to ensure that those votes are heard,” Sanchez said.

Romero said that while there was nothing unusual about California’s June primary, residents may have felt like it took longer to count votes because of heightened scrutiny from Trump on close, high-profile races.

Shifting results in close races – such as the LA mayor’s race – in the days after Election Day also contributed to voters’ frustration, Sanchez said. Results naturally shift toward Democratic candidates as votes are counted because Republicans tend to vote earlier than Democrats, Hasen added.

“There is a lot of doubt around election integrity even though our elections are run very well, and that is dangerous for democracy,” Hasen said. “If people don’t believe that the results reflect the will of the people, then people lose confidence in their democracy, and they don’t believe that their government is legitimate.”

In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the 2026-27 fiscal year budget, which allocated $40 million for county elections offices to speed up ballot counting. LA County invested in more personnel, vote tallying and signature verification equipment and outreach to encourage early voting, Sanchez said.

People who are concerned about long vote tallying should vote well before Election Day, Sanchez said. He added that those who are skeptical of election processes can visit the LA County Ballot Processing Center or watch the registrar’s office’s ballot counting live stream.

“It’s not a secret,” Sanchez said. “It’s not a dark room where people are processing or doing activities. This is open, in the day of light, available for anyone to come in and watch.”

Students can vote in the Nov. 3 midterm elections at one of several locations on UCLA campus and in Westwood, including Ackerman Union, De Neve Plaza and the Hammer Museum.