RNC rails towards California’s late mail-in poll counting amid nationwide litigation: ‘It’s absurd’

The Republican Nationwide Committee (RNC) stated it has filed nationwide lawsuits to cease a number of states from counting mail-in-ballots after Election Day, as California has taken almost a month to certify some races.

“It’s absurd for California to simply accept ballots by mail as much as 7 days after Election Day and take virtually a month to rely them,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley wrote on X. 

Whatley stated the RNC, alongside the California Republican Social gathering, “will proceed to battle aggressively to power all states to cease accepting ballots after Election Day.” 

Republicans on the bottom in California are working with attorneys and observers “all through the method of voting, curing, and counting,” he added. The RNC has additionally partnered with the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee and Elon Musk’s PAC to launch a brand new statewide poll curing operation. 

“The RNC, NRCC, and CAGOP’s election integrity operation was on the bottom in California earlier than Election Day, on Election Day, and has continued working ever since November fifth. Our attorneys and skilled volunteers are in place to make sure transparency all through the election course of,” Gates McGavick, senior advisor to Whatley informed Fox Information Digital in an announcement. 

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A voter casts a poll through the Tremendous Tuesday major at a polling station in an American Legion Submit in Hawthorne, California, March 5, 2024. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP through Getty Photographs)

California’s vote-counting course of has been extended as a result of excessive quantity of mail-in-ballots, with a majority of Californians opting to vote by mail. Within the state’s 2022 election, almost 90% of votes have been solid through mail-in ballots.

State regulation additionally permits mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted in the event that they arrive as much as per week later. Mail-in ballots are usually put via a verification course of that may additionally lengthen the period of time they’re tallied. The election certification deadline is Dec. 16. 

As of Wednesday, a number of races stay undecided within the Golden State, together with battleground districts like Congressional district 13 between Republican Rep. John Duarte and Democrat challenger Adam Grey. 

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The California Capitol July 17, 2022, in Sacramento, Calif.  (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions through Getty Photographs)

“Each vote in each state issues, and the RNC will work with our state events and candidates to make sure Election Integrity throughout the nation,” Whatley stated. “It’s clear that we want actual election reforms to Defend the Vote in California.”

Liberal Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a number of legal guidelines throughout his time period to broaden mail-in voting. In 2021, Newsom signed AB 37, making California one of many first states to require that each one lively registered voters routinely obtain absentee ballots, codifying a COVID-19 period emergency measure briefly handed in 2020. Two legal guidelines signed in 2023, AB 626 and AB 545, require a curbside voting possibility in any respect polling locations and allow voters to drop off their mail-in ballots at polling stations to have them counted instantly. 

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom greets individuals, Monday, July 8, 2024, close to the Frequent Man Roadside Market and Deli, in Hooksett, N.H. (AP Photograph/Steven Senne)

California is certainly one of 14 states the place voters usually are not required to point out voter ID at polling stations. In March 2024, Huntington Seaside – a conservative hotspot on the Southern coastal line – officers handed a neighborhood measure requiring voter ID to vote in elections, which Newsom shortly bucked via state laws in September, which prohibited native governments from implementing legal guidelines that require voter ID.

“The best to freely solid your vote is the muse of our democracy and Huntington Seaside’s voter ID coverage flies within the face of this precept,” state Lawyer Normal Bob Bonta stated in an announcement on the time.

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Republican criticism of extended-vote counting intervals has intensified this election cycle, together with in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Previous to Sen. Bob Casey’s concession final week in Pennsylvania’s Senate seat to his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, nationwide and state Republican events went to courtroom arguing counties shouldn’t rely mail-in-ballots the place the voter both did not write a date on the return envelope or wrote the flawed one, the AP reported. 

President-Elect Donald Trump has additionally taken discover of California’s voter ID legal guidelines, writing on his Reality Social account he would demand proof of citizenship and voter ID in elections. In the meantime, Newsom is gearing as much as “Trump-proof” the state and has referred to as an emergency particular legislative session on Dec. 2. 

“California is able to battle,” Newsom wrote on X after the election. “Whether or not it’s our elementary civil rights, reproductive freedom, or local weather motion — we refuse to show again the clock and permit our values and legal guidelines to be attacked.”