Berman Introduces Legislation to Expedite Election Results

SACRAMENTO - Today Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) will introduce legislation to assist counties in the prompt tallying and release of election results.

"California has one of the most accessible, secure, and transparent voting systems in the country. We also have some of the most competitive congressional and legislative races, due to our independent redistricting process and lack of political gerrymandering. These are things to be proud of, but they also lead to slower counts than other states that restrict voting rights and gerrymander boundaries to guarantee results before the first vote is even cast," said Assemblymember Marc Berman. "Unfortunately, we are already seeing Republicans in California and throughout the country use this to sow doubt about election results they don't like, continuing their efforts to undermine our democracy."

"Counties must do everything they can to count votes both quickly and accurately, and we need to make sure they have adequate resources and guidance to do that. I look forward to convening stakeholders to evaluate what is working and what we can do better to maintain our nation-leading voting rights while speeding up the count."

Assemblymember Berman chaired the Assembly Elections Committee from 2017-2021, where he was a leader on protecting voting rights, shielding voters from deceptive elections practices, making election information more accessible, and improving election cybersecurity and campaign finance disclosure. He authored legislation to require elections officials to mail voters a ballot before every election, allow voters to track their vote by mail ballot, make it easier for students to vote by adding ballot drop boxes on campuses, add additional ways a voter can correct a missing or mismatching signature on a ballot envelope, and provide voters with a date certain by which to correct the missing or mismatched signature.

Contact: [email protected]

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