NBC: ‘Late-Arriving’ Mail-In Votes in LA Could Pour In For Days

Election Day turning into Election Week, or even Election Month, has become an all-too-familiar reality in deep-blue California.

State officials and liberal leaders often argue that lengthy counting delays are simply the result of processing a massive volume of mail-in ballots. But for many conservatives, the pattern has become another reason to question why America’s largest state routinely struggles to deliver timely election results.

The concerns are growing again as Republicans show unexpected strength in key California races, including contests for governor and Los Angeles mayor, while also outperforming expectations across multiple regions of the state.

Now, NBC News is warning that large numbers of ballots may continue arriving and being counted for days, or even weeks.

NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki explained during election coverage that California’s final results would not be known quickly because of the state’s late-arriving vote-by-mail system.

“Remember, the final piece of the puzzle that we won’t know tonight, right, is the late arriving vote by mail,” Kornacki began.

“And we’re talking about probably like a third of the vote in Los Angeles. We’re probably not going to be getting until tomorrow and maybe days to come after tomorrow,” Kornacki added.

“The mail can still come in after Election Day. And there’s indications,” Kornacki said.

“And there’s certainly a ton of precedent here, that that late arriving vote by mail is going to be significantly more Democratic friendly than all of the other vote, meaning that would be good news for Bass,” Kornacki continued.

“That would be good news for Raman. If she’s going to come out of tonight behind Pratt,” he added.

Kornacki noted that the outstanding ballots could matter significantly in close contests, particularly if Republican candidates build early leads on Election Night.

“It’s a huge if, but if she’s going to come out of tonight behind Pratt — well, it’s not a huge if at this point — she would then have an opportunity if she’s close enough to catch him with that. But that is a 25,000 vote pad there. Eight percentage points that Pratt has managed to build.”

For Republicans, the dynamic is frustratingly familiar: strong Election Night numbers followed by days or weeks of late-arriving ballots that often trend heavily Democratic.

The situation is now unfolding alongside a separate legal fight that is renewing scrutiny of California’s voter registration system.

A lawsuit filed against California Secretary of State Shirley Weber alleges that hundreds of thousands of inactive voter registrations remain on the state’s voter rolls in violation of federal law.

According to the complaint, California has failed to remove approximately 873,092 inactive voter registrations, despite federal requirements for voter list maintenance.

The lawsuit argues that federal law requires states to remove certain inactive registrations after voters fail to participate in multiple consecutive federal election cycles and fail to respond to address verification notices.

Plaintiffs claim California has not properly followed those rules.

Court filings allege that more than 873,000 voter registrations remained on the rolls despite being inactive through at least three consecutive federal elections. The complaint also claims that more than 151,000 registrations allegedly remained active after four consecutive election cycles without voting activity.

The lawsuit centers on the National Voter Registration Act, widely known as the “Motor Voter” law, which sets standards for maintaining accurate voter registration lists.

California currently has more than 23 million registered voters, giving it the largest voter registration system in the United States. That scale, critics argue, makes accurate list maintenance even more important.

This is not the first time California’s voter rolls have faced serious scrutiny.

In 2019, Judicial Watch reached a settlement with California and Los Angeles County that led to the removal of more than 1.2 million inactive names from voter registration lists.

Plaintiffs in the new case argue that despite those past corrective efforts, California continues to have major problems maintaining clean and accurate voter rolls.

According to the complaint, 20 California counties reportedly removed 50 or fewer inactive registrations over a recent period, even as the state experienced major population movement and census data showed significant migration out of California.

Supporters of the lawsuit say accurate voter rolls are essential to public confidence, election transparency, and the prevention of fraud, duplicate registrations, and administrative errors.

California officials have repeatedly defended the state’s election system, insisting that safeguards are in place to prevent illegal voting.

But with late-arriving mail ballots again expected to shape outcomes in key races, and with a lawsuit alleging massive voter roll problems, conservatives are asking a simple question: why does California continue to make election results so slow, complicated, and difficult for the public to trust?

The controversy comes during a politically charged election season in California, where Republicans are showing new signs of life in a state long dominated by Democrats.

For voters concerned about transparency, the latest developments offer another reminder that election integrity is not merely a partisan talking point. It is a basic requirement for a functioning republic.