Why Haven’t Numerous California House Races Been Called Yet?

By Courtney Cohn

The U.S. House is still up for grabs with 18 congressional races in the 2024 election remaining uncalled as of Monday afternoon — 10 of which are in California.(Courtney Cohn/Democracy Docket)

The U.S. House, which currently has a Republican majority, is still up for grabs in the 2024 election, since 18 races haven’t been called — and 10 of them are in California.

There are various reasons why races haven’t been called yet, but one large factor for California is that the state accepts mail-in ballots delivered by Nov. 12 as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.

Almost half of U.S. states have post-Election Day ballot receipt deadlines, but since many of California’s congressional races are extremely close, that means that a larger number of votes need to be counted to determine a winner. Currently, many of the state’s counties don’t expect to have the next round of results until later this week.

These deadlines vary by state, with Texas’ being the day after the election and Illinois’ being 14 days following Election Day. In these states, postal service delays don’t prevent a voter’s ballot from being counted.

However, many of these deadlines have been challenged by Republicans over the past several years since the pandemic when mail-in voting popularity expanded. The GOP’s attempts in states like Illinois, North Dakota and Pennsylvania have been unsuccessful, but other cases are still ongoing. 

On Monday, pro-voting groups asked the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a three-judge panel’s decision that invalidated a Mississippi law allowing election officials to count timely postmarked mail-in ballots for up to five business days after an election. 

Leading up to the general election, the U.S. Postal Service told voters to mail their ballots a week before Election Day, if possible, to ensure they would arrive by Nov. 5. 

The Postal Service said it would be taking “extraordinary measures” to accelerate the delivery of ballots and hasn’t reported any major disruptions to the country’s mail service.

Also, following a law that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed in September, voters have until Dec. 3 to cure their mail-in ballots if they made any errors, which is the state’s new certification deadline. This could delay some vote counts as well.

So far, Republicans have gained control of the U.S. Senate and the White House, but voters may have to wait a few more days to see which party will control the House.