WASHINGTON — A week after Election Day, control of the The United States House rests over a little more than a dozen races whose winners have not yet been determined.

Nine states have at least one non-called Home runsome of which are so close that they are headed for a recount.

And then there is California. About half of House races still to be decided are in the state, which only counted about three-quarters of its votes statewide.

This is neither unusual nor unexpected, since the nation’s most populous state is consistently among the slowest to release all of its election results. Compare that to a state like Florida, the third largest, which finished counting its votes four days after Election Day.

The same was true four years ago, when Florida released the results of nearly 99% of votes cast within hours of polls closing. In California, nearly a third of ballots were uncounted after Election Night, and the state updated its tally almost daily through Dec. 3, a full month after Election Day.

These differences in how states count — and how long it takes — exist because the Constitution sets out the broad principles for electing a national government, but leaves the details to the states. The choices state lawmakers and election officials make as they sort out these details affect everything from how voters vote to how quickly results are tabulated and released to how elections are secured and how officials maintain voter confidence in the process. .

The gap between when California and Florida are able to finalize their counts is the natural result of election officials in the two states choosing to emphasize different concerns and set different priorities. Here’s an overview of the differences:

California lawmakers designed their elections to improve accessibility and increase participation. Whether it’s automatically receiving a ballot at home, having until Election Day to turn it in, or having several days to resolve any issues that may arise with their ballot, Californians have plenty of time and opportunity to vote. This comes at the expense of knowing that the final vote counts shortly after the polls close.

“Our priority is to try to maximize participation among actively registered voters,” said Democratic Assemblyman Marc Berman, author of the 2021 bill that shifted the state permanently to all-mail elections. “That means things are a little slower. But in a society that wants instant gratification, I think our democracy is worth taking some time to get right and create a system in which everyone can participate.

California, which has long had a vote-by-mail culture, began moving toward all-mail elections last decade. Mail-only systems will almost always extend the countdown. Mail-in ballots require additional verification steps – each must be opened individually, validated and processed – so tabulating them can take longer than ballots cast in person that are then fed into a scanner at a neighborhood polling place.

In 2016, California passed a bill allow counties to join in mail-in elections before temporarily instituting it statewide in 2020 and enshrining it into law in time for the 2022 elections.

Studies have shown that the first states to implement mail-in elections – Oregon and Washington – had higher voter turnout. Mail-in ballots also increase the likelihood that a voter will cast a completed ballot, according to Melissa Michelson, a political scientist and dean of Menlo College in California who has written about voter mobilization.

In recent years, the thousands of California voters who cast their mail-in ballots on Election Day created a bottleneck on Election Night. In the last five general elections, California received an average of 38% of its votes after Election Day. Two years ago, in the 2022 midterm elections, half of the state’s votes were counted after Election Day.

Slower counts were accompanied by later absentee ballot deadlines. In 2015, California imposed its first postmark deadline, meaning the state can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day provided the Postal Service receives the ballot. vote before election day. Berman said the postmark deadline allows the state to treat the mailbox like a drop box to avoid punishing voters who cast their ballot correctly but are affected by postal delays.

Initially, the law stated that ballots arriving within three days of the election would be considered cast on time. This year, ballots may arrive up to a week after Election Day, so California won’t know how many ballots were cast until November 12. This deadline means California will count ballots through at least this week, as ballots arrive until November 12. this point could still be valid and added to the count.