California Voter Foundation

Hi Folks,

I'm writing to share a few updates and news developments we are keeping an eye on at the California Voter Foundation.

Reducing Ballot Rejection

Last month, I testified before the California State Senate and Constitutional Amendments Committee about vote-by-mail ballot rejection and ballot curing. My slide deck and testimony are available on CVF's web site and reflect over a decade's worth of CVF's work on reforms to reduce ballot rejection. 

To help voters reduce mistakes when casting vote-by-mail ballots, CVF is supporting AB 1072/Pellerin, directing the Secretary of State to provide uniform guidance to counties and voters explaining the best way to address mistakes made when casting ballots. 

We are also working on the final report for our Close Count Transparency Project, which will include many other recommendations to address and accelerate our state's vote-counting process. 

Dear Friends,

For this Giving Tuesday, we invite you to make a meaningful impact on California’s democracy by supporting the California Voter Foundation (CVF).

In this, our 30th year, CVF has been monitoring several competitive California races in the November 2024 election. This project is giving the public and media a clear picture of how close the margin is in undecided contests and how many ballots remain. 

The Close Count Transparency Project is the brainchild of Kim Alexander, who has guided CVF through three decades of changes in elections in California. The project has been featured in stories just this past month in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, CalMatters, Spectrum News and KQED among others.

Hi Folks,

We are now three weeks past Election Day and two California U.S. House races along with one state legislative contest remain too close to call. We've created some charts below showing how CD 13 and CD 45 results have tightened and changed since Election Night to help illustrate how incredibly close these two contests are. 

There are still two U.S. House seats in California that remain "too close to call". In Southern California's CD 45, Republican incumbent Michelle Steele has seen her lead over Democratic challenger Derek Tran shrink from a high of 5.1 percent the morning after Election Day to 0.02 percent as of Friday. This amounts to just 58 ballots separating the two candidates, with an estimated 151,000 ballots remaining to process in the counties that are home to this district.