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The election is over, and no more ballots can be cast. But campaigns in tight congressional races across California are scrambling to make sure their supporters’ votes are counted.

Through the increasingly common process known as “ballot curing,” campaigns are contacting voters whose ballots were not counted because of a technicality and giving them a chance to correct their mistakes. That could mean asking them to correct their address or add their signature to an envelope they forgot to sign. 

The stakes are especially high in California’s battleground districts, where voters could determine which party will control the House of Representatives next year.

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It’s been nearly a week since election day, and California is still counting ballots, imposing an agonizing wait on a nation wondering who will lead the next U.S. House of Representatives. 

It isn’t a surprise that California is taking its time to verify, process and count the ballots of its more than 22 million registered voters. 

While some might see the delay as a problem, Russia Chavis Cardenas, the voting rights and redistricting program manager for California Common Cause, called it a virtue.

“It means elections officials are doing everything they can to count every legitimate ballot fairly and accurately,” Cardenas said. 

California has an estimated 5 million ballots that still need to be counted, according to the most recent report of unprocessed ballots by the California secretary of state.

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California Democrats and their allies are battening down the hatches for Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.

On Thursday Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a special session to prepare the state for likely legal challenges against the Trump administration, write CalMatters Capitol reporters Jeanne Kuang and Alexei Koseff. During Trump’s first term, the state sued the federal government more than 100 times, and is expected to come to blows again over regulations on reproductive rights, immigration, gun control and more.

But taking the feds to court doesn’t come cheap. The session, which will begin Dec. 2 when the new Legislature is sworn in, will mostly focus on approving funding for California’s Department of Justice and other state agencies — perhaps as much as $100 million — to file “robust affirmative litigation.” 

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Over 7.6 million ballots were cast in California before the final days of voting, but the counting process will take days if not weeks. The uncertainty, heightened by the state’s universal mail-in voting system, may fuel doubts and conspiracy theories about election integrity. In response, state and local officials are working to reassure the public that all ballots are secure and will be counted accurately.

To enhance transparency, the California Voter Foundation launched an initiative to monitor ballot counting in seven key congressional districts, providing updates on the count and candidate margins starting Tuesday until Dec. 5. 

“We have more competitive races and narrower margins in California today than we used to,” Kim Alexander, the foundation’s president, said in a statement. “In some contests, practically every single ballot must be counted before a winner can be determined.”