Elon Musk Praises India's Swift Vote Counting, Slams California's Delays

On Sunday, Elon Musk commended India's vote-counting efficiency while criticising the prolonged delays in parts of the United States, particularly in California.

In a post on X, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO highlighted India's achievement of counting 640 million votes within a single day during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, contrasting it with the slow pace in California, where vote tallying for the US presidential elections remains incomplete nearly 20 days after polling concluded on 5 November.

Photo Credit: PTI

Responding to a post that shared a screenshot of a media report titled How India counted 640 million votes in a day, Musk remarked: "India counted 640 million votes in 1 day. California is still counting votes."

Earlier this year, India conducted its Lok Sabha elections, involving over 900 million eligible voters. Of these, a record-breaking 642 million people cast their votes. Despite the scale of the undertaking, the results were announced on the same day as the counting.

How India Achieved This Feat

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs): Used since 2000, these devices ensure rapid and accurate counting.

Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT): Introduced to enhance transparency, this system produces a paper slip for every vote cast, enabling verification when necessary.

India's 543 parliamentary constituencies conduct vote counting simultaneously, under the supervision of the Election Commission of India (ECI). Following Supreme Court guidelines, postal ballots are processed and counted before unsealing EVM votes. Returning Officers oversee the tallying process at centralised counting locations, with results declared after each round.

Even during recent state elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, India demonstrated remarkable efficiency by counting nearly 90 million votes within hours. Maharashtra alone, with a population four times that of California, managed to deliver results swiftly.

Why Delays in California?

Vote counting in the United States-especially in states like California-can take weeks. For the presidential election on 5 November, California reported delays, with more than 300,000 ballots still uncounted weeks later. This inefficiency has attracted criticism from Musk and others, including voters and analysts.

California relies heavily on mail-in voting, which involves time-consuming processes such as verifying signatures on ballot envelopes, opening and sorting ballots, and then tallying them.

Unlike India's centralised oversight by the ECI, the United States employs a decentralised system, with state and local election offices operating under different laws and resource constraints.