Midterms: Why is California slower at counting its votes?

We're bringing another guest here, Guy Masradi, political correspondent at KQED in the Bay Area in San Francisco. Thanks so much for joining us, Guy. I know you have limited time with us. The California polls, they've just closed about 11 minutes ago, but we shouldn't expect the results right away. That's because California is notoriously slow at counting its votes. Can you just quickly explain to us why that is? Well, it's really the fact that here in California, over 80 percent of voters, over 90 percent in some recent elections vote by mail. And the fact is that the biggest day for those vote-by-mail ballots to get dropped off is on election day. And so what ends up happening is the process for checking the ballots to matching the signatures, that all happens after the votes are cast. And so you end up with this tale of days and days of vote counting. And in the closest races, in some of the close house races we've seen in recent years, weeks before we know a winner. What are the races you're paying close attention to in California tonight? Of course, there are no Senate races. You have House races, a governor's race. You have a mayor's race in LA. Yeah, a governor's race that has already been called by the Associated Press just a couple minutes after polls closed. Javier Becerra will become the first Latino governor of California in modern history, the latest Democrat to be running the state. I think a lot of eyes are on Proposition 40, the billionaire wealth tax, this idea of putting a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of billionaires. It's divided Democrats within California. You have labor unions, Thank for it, you have Governor Gavin Newsom and some other Democrats against it. Recent polling, it's not been looking good for Proposition 40. We'll see how that one goes. And then there are a few really hotly contested congressional races up and down the state that although Democrats have already secured you. a victory, a majority in the House, that margin could depend on how some of these races in California go. Okay, Guy, I know you have limited time, so I appreciate you joining us here on France 24. Guy Maserati, political correspondent at KQED in the Bay Area.