Scoop: NRCC launches "largest ballot curing effort in California history"

Rep. John Duarte is currently neck-and-neck with his Democratic opponent

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has launched a “record-breaking ballot curing operation” in California in response to the state’s slow-moving ballot counting efforts.

The NRCC is partnering with the Republican National Committee (RNC) — which had a banner year in terms of winning at the courts on issues of election integrity — alongside the California GOP, Elon Musk’s America PAC, and Rep. John Duarte’s campaign. Seventy staff on the ground have already cured over ten times the number of ballots that were cured in 2022, when Duarte won by several hundred votes.

The NRCC launched the “largest ballot curing effort in California history,” committee spokesman Ben Petersen told the Washington Reporter. “Republicans’ record-breaking ballot curing operation in California's 13th district underscores our commitment to fight for every vote and re-elect Rep. John Duarte.” Although Election Day was weeks ago, Democrats have been gaining dozens of votes in recent days, eating into the margins of Republican Reps. Michelle Steel and Duarte.

Duarte is currently neck-and-neck with Democrat Adam Gray. “In 2022, Rep. Duarte flipped his seat by fewer than 600 votes in a race that wasn’t called until early December,” California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson told the Reporter. “We knew we were in for another lengthy post-Election Day count in this incredibly close race, so with the help of our partners, we prepared accordingly and expanded our efforts from two years earlier. Our election integrity and ballot curing infrastructure has worked tirelessly in this district to protect the vote and will continue until every legal vote gets cured and counted.”

California’s slow ballot-counting pace has been noticed. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.), who cofounded the House’s Election Integrity Caucus, is reportedly looking into legislation that would require municipalities to post most of their election results within twelve hours of polls closing.

Cycle after cycle, California has lagged behind other states in posting its election results — which Tenney and others are dead-set on changing. “California is one cycle from having United Nations monitors and battling Sierra Leone to be designated an emerging democracy,” a veteran Golden State strategist told the Reporter.