Los Angeles County processes 99% of ballots one week after midterms

Los Angeles County processed approximately 99% of its nearly 3.2 million ballots one week after the November 3 midterm election. The state reported that 37,800 ballots remained to be counted as of 5:41 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10. This pace is faster than the county’s performance in recent years and exceeds the state average for the same period.

State officials allocated $29 million for new equipment, staffing, and voter awareness campaigns following President Trump’s June claims of fraud in the primary. Los Angeles County received about $6 million of that total. The county used part of the funding to purchase a third mail ballot processing machine and announced a shift to around-the-clock counting operations in the days following the election.

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, noted that the county had processed 96.9% of ballots a week after the 2024 general election and 73.3% after the 2022 general election. She stated that the county was also ahead of the state average, which stood at 92.8% processed one week after the June primary and 84.2% after the 2024 general election. Other large counties lagged behind Los Angeles, with San Diego County having 185,000 ballots left to count and Orange County having 116,660 remaining as of late Tuesday.

Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, attributed the speed to state funding and the county’s new 144,000-square-foot ballot processing facility. The $10 million facility opened in 2024 and allows the county to process mail and vote center ballots simultaneously, a task that previously required stopping one operation to start the other. Logan said the additional sorting machine helped workers handle the large volume of ballot envelopes arriving from drop boxes and vote centers on election day.

Alexander described the rapid count as remarkable given the high turnout and the complexity of the state ballot. She said the efficiency was also notable because of the pressure from the Trump administration, which had challenged California’s election procedures in federal courts. The administration had sought stricter rules for mail ballots, voter ID, and proof of citizenship, as well as federal oversight. Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, rejected these efforts. The Supreme Court also allowed California and Los Angeles County to continue counting 20,000 ballots that the Department of Justice had flagged as potentially cast by noncitizens.

Logan said the judicial branch prevented what county officials called chaos by allowing the counting to proceed without segregating the flagged ballots in the middle of the election. He noted that the success of this election cycle is not guaranteed and that state and county officials view the results as proof that continued investment in election infrastructure is necessary. Logan stated that Los Angeles County will continue to be a target of the administration, particularly ahead of the 2028 election when the administration may again focus on the state.

The quick processing time comes amid ongoing litigation and federal scrutiny of California’s election laws. Governor Gavin Newsom acknowledged in May that longer counting times allow misinformation to spread, prompting state lawmakers to pass legislation in 2025 to speed up the tabulation process. Newsom wrote to election officials that time is essential in preventing election lies from taking hold. Los Angeles County remains the most populous county in the state and processed more ballots than any other county in the state during this cycle.