While most political strategists and campaign operatives are finally enjoying a post-election repose, making their favorite Thanksgiving fixings and preparing to deck the halls, California’s election officials and party leaders are still on the job.

Once again this year, California is the last state to finish its vote-counting, thanks to a set of vote-by-mail election laws the Democratic Party’s supermajority in the state legislature passed beginning last decade – purportedly to encourage more voter participation.

But making it easier to vote has come with a cost: The state is now a national punchline for election inefficiency, and critics assail it as rife for fraud. As of Tuesday night, two fiercely contested congressional races are hanging in the balance, and three state Assembly races remain too close to call.

“We’re still working,” lamented Jessica Millan Patterson, who chairs the California Republican Party. “Not just as Republicans, but as Californians, it’s embarrassing that we’re the last state in the nation. We’re the home of Silicon Valley, and we can do better. Florida has their elections tabulated in three hours.”

Yet three weeks after the election, there are still 109,485 votes to count across 58 counties, according to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. And even when all the votes are counted, they won’t be certified until mid-December.

The main reason behind the delays? The state sends a ballot to every registered voter and counts all that are turned in within a week after polls close on Election Day – even if the ballots don’t carry a postmark. All that’s required is that a voter “has dated the vote-by-mail ballot identification envelope or the envelope otherwise indicates that the ballot was executed on or before Election Day,” according to California regulations.

County election officials must complete final counts of all 15.3 million votes cast by Dec. 5, and Weber has until Dec. 13 to certify the results. The vast majority of California voters use vote-by-mail, which slows down the vote-counting process.

“We have to open envelopes, we have to verify the signature, and all of those things before we can actually accept that ballot,” Weber said during a press conference the week after the election. “We have to make sure that that’s the person who actually sent the ballot in.”

But that’s not the whole story. The later deadlines have led to slower counts, as counties with strained election resources have no incentive to pay workers........

© RealClearPolitics