More than two weeks after Election Day, county officials across California have nearly 1.5 million ballots that have yet to be checked or counted.
Roughly 44 percent of the official total _ 1,466,308 _ were in Los Angeles and San Diego counties. State officials said the count could be static for days because of the Thanksgiving holiday break.
Two pending ballot races were called by Associated Press on Wednesday: Voters narrowly rejected Proposition 53, an effort that sought to force statewide votes to fund a major water project and the future of high-speed rail. And they narrowly approved Proposition 66, which aims to speed up the death penalty.
As the California count has dragged on, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's lead in the national popular vote has increased to about 2 million.
There are multiple reasons for the long wait: California is home to more voters than any other state across the country. It also has more election laws designed to maximize a voter's chances of casting a ballot.
By law, counties have up to 30 days to certify the final results to state election officials. In many cases, the uncounted ballots are the ones that were dropped off on Election Day or ballots that arrived in the mail at the last minute.
State law also allows for any ballot postmarked by Election Day that arrives no later than three days later to be counted.
