Republican California gubernatorial hopeful Steve Hilton vowed to abolish the Golden State’s weeks-long ballot counting process if he is elected in November.
The former Fox News host railed against the “ridiculous” amount of time that it takes for ballots to be tallied after election day, with the official results of Tuesday’s primary unlikely to be finalized for at least several weeks, a system that not only makes California look like a third-world country, but is rife with the possibility for Democrat cheating.
In fiery remarks from San Mateo on Friday, Hilton slammed the idea that it takes California weeks to complete the ballot count when a massively populous country like India can complete the work in a single day.
🚨 UPDATE: Governor candidate Steve Hilton just said he plans to ABOLISH the weeks-long California vote counting if elected
GOOD! Be like Florida!
HILTON: “India counts over 640 million votes in a day. California cannot count less than 10 million votes in a month!”
“Mail-in… pic.twitter.com/h7BQBq5jZI
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 5, 2026
“This shambles is absolutely shameful for our state,” Hilton said. “India counts over 640 million votes in a day. California cannot count less than 10 million votes in a month.”
“Thanks to the Democrats in charge of our state, we have become a national and an international laughingstock,” he continued.
“And then when you dig in to what is actually happening here, you see the reason,” he said, reading off examples of the progress in several counties and stressing the need for a new way of doing things while referring to his plan.
“We need sensible elections in California,” Hilton declared. “Mail-in ballots must arrive by election day if they’re going to be counted. Mail-in ballots can only be offered by request as it used to be.“
“You shouldn’t be sending out mail-in ballots to everyone on the voter rolls when we know the voter rolls are completely wrong,” the Republican continued. “We should be pre-counting these votes just like Florida does, so it doesn’t end up being this mad backlog that takes a month or so to count. It’s completely ridiculous.”
As governor, I will end this FARCE and make sure all votes are counted within 48 hours of the mail-in deadline.
That’s 8pm Thursday, June 11th. That is still late, but it is better than JULY 2nd which is the Democrat ‘plan’! pic.twitter.com/xwNBUjcV3u
— Steve Hilton (@SteveHiltonx) June 5, 2026
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis contrasted elections in his state with the mess in California.
“Florida processes more than 10 million votes in a matter of hours,” the Sunshine State Republican said in a post to X. “California takes days — or sometimes even weeks — to count the votes. It’s pathetic — and it’s corrosive to our civic culture.”
On Tuesday, the Trump-endorsed Hilton was leading in the nonpartisan “jungle” primary in which the top two candidates advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.
In the subsequent days, he watched his lead gradually shrink until former Biden administration Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra pulled ahead, and although he maintains a comfortable lead over billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, the votes continue to be counted with the Democrat ballot harvesting operation evidently in full swing.
Hilton remains confident that the math is in his favor and that he will be in the top two once the ballot counting has been completed, whenever that is.
“California is the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to election reporting. We are the fourth-largest economy in the world, home to Silicon Valley and some of the most advanced technology on earth, yet government bureaucrats need a month to count fewer than 10 million ballots,” the Republican said earlier this week, according to the New York Post.
“It’s insane,” Hilton added. “Every election brings the same excuses, the same delays, and the same collapse in public confidence. Californians deserve better.”
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