![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-02-at-6.29.42-AM.png\")
<\/a>California Secretary of State Alex Padilla talks about voting rights and announces new voter registration numbers Nov. 2 in San Francisco.<\/p><\/div>\n
California\u2019s top election official defended the state\u2019s ongoing vote tally Thursday after outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan called it \u201cbizarre\u201d that ballots counted sometimes weeks after Election Day flipped Republican-held congressional seats to Democrats.<\/p>\n
Ryan, R-Wis., said during a Washington Post event Thursday that California\u2019s election apparatus \u201cjust defies logic to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lot of wins that night, and three weeks later we lost basically every contested California race,\u201d Ryan continued, according to the Post.<\/p>\n
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said in response that \u201cit is bizarre that Paul Ryan cannot grasp basic voting rights protections.\u201d<\/p>\n
California in recent years has adopted a number of measures to accommodate voters that delay results, including accepting ballots postmarked on Election Day that arrive by the following Friday and allowing voters to register at the polls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t \u2018defy logic\u2019 that elections officials are meticulous in counting every eligible ballot,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cCalifornia works to ensure every ballot is counted properly and every ballot is accounted for. In the most populous state in the nation \u2014 and the state with the largest number of registered voters \u2014 this takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesman later clarified to The Hill that Ryan, who is retiring, \u201cdoes not dispute the results\u201d of the election in which Democrats appear to have gained 40 seats to retake control of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 JUNE 14: House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks during his weekly news conference on Capitol Hill, June 14, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson\/Getty Images) Mark Wilson\/Getty Images
\nThose include seven GOP-held districts in California that had gone for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race where the incumbents were seen as vulnerable. This week, Democrat TJ Cox edged ahead of Republican incumbent David G. Valadao by 529 votes in a Central Valley district south of Fresno where the three-term congressman had been ahead by seven percentage points on Election Night and the Associated Press had projected him the winner.<\/p>\n
Democrats also pulled off a historic sweep in Orange County, leaving the GOP stronghold without a Republican in Congress for the first time in more than 80 years, after lottery winner Gil Cisneros came from behind to defeat former Assemblywoman Young Kim in a race that wasn\u2019t decided until 11 days after Election Day.<\/p>\n
In all, the result halved the Republican presence among California\u2019s 53-member House delegation from 14 to seven.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still don\u2019t completely understand it,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cThere are a lot of races there we should have won.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan said that while he wasn\u2019t suggesting anything \u201cnefarious,\u201d he found the reversal of several races \u201ca very, very strange outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way the absentee-ballot program used to work, and the way it works now, it seems pretty loosey-goose,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ryan also echoed complaints from other Republicans, including Orange County Republican Party Chairman Fred Whitaker, of \u201cballot harvesting,\u201d when a voter hands over a completed ballot to a third party to be cast for them, according to the Post. This was the first year the practice was legal in California.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis election system they have \u2014 I can\u2019t begin to understand what \u2018ballot harvesting\u2019 is,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n
Padilla said in response that \u201cin California, we believe in an inclusive and accessible democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe provide voters as many opportunities as possible to cast their ballots,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cThat is why we have no-excuse vote by mail, automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration, and early voting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related Articles
\nLast undecided House race is in California; here\u2019s the latest midterm tally
\nPadilla said those \u201creforms helped drive California\u2019s historic registration and a 30-year high in midterm turnout.\u201d Republicans now make up less than 25 percent of the state\u2019s registered voters.
\nRyan is hardly the only one to question California\u2019s election regime. Republican President Donald Trump has suggested \u2014 without evidence \u2014 that illegal votes helped put the heavily Democratic state in rival Clinton\u2019s column in 2016.<\/p>\n
This week, the Election Integrity Project California, a nonprofit that describes itself as a nonpartisan election oversight group, raised questions about what it called the state\u2019s \u201cshape-shifting\u201d voting results in the June primary. The group cited discrepancies in totals of poll and mail ballots cited by the state and by four Southern California counties.<\/p>\n
For example, the group said Los Angles County reported a total of 825,427 poll ballots and 665,075 mail ballots on June 29, but the state\u2019s VoteCal records on Oct. 17 showed 669,448 poll ballots and 798,753 mail ballots.<\/p>\n
Linda Paine, the group\u2019s president, said in a statement that \u201cinconsistencies in the reporting of votes makes it impossible for citizen groups like EIPCa to independently validate the results of elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia voters deserve to know that their votes are accurately counted and accounted for,\u201d she added. \u201cEIPCa will continue to seek answers from election officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
Padilla\u2019s office had no immediate response to the group\u2019s claims. But in his response to Ryan, Padilla said that \u201cI stand with the thousands of elections officials and volunteers throughout the state who continue to work around the clock to ensure the accuracy and integrity of our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n