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Calling a statewide special election sounds simple in theory. But executing one with fewer than 75 days notice? As one California county election official put it, that’s a “herculean” effort.

California voting officials are scrambling behind the scenes to prepare for the special election Gov. Gavin Newsom wants this November on his proposal to redraw the state’s congressional districts. But to do so, Newsom needs voters to approve a ballot initiative in an off-year special election that the state has yet to officially approve and schedule.

Democrats want the proposed California maps to offset President Donald Trump and Republicans’ efforts to stack the next congressional election in the GOP’s favor by squeezing more Republican seats out of red states like Texas, Florida and Missouri.

Newsom only released his proposed maps late last week, and state lawmakers — who just returned from a month-long summer recess — are staring down a hard deadline of Friday to greenlight the ballot language before voters in time for a Nov. 4 election.

County election officials are hustling as if the election is happening so they can make sure they lock down everything from vendors to print their ballots, locations for voting centers and election workers to staff those polling places come Nov. 4. They’ve pushed hard for the state to cover the hefty costs of an unplanned special election, and some have noted that without additional appropriations, they might need to cut back on vital public safety and social services.

“It’s difficult for us, just in a regular election, being a smaller rural county,” said Juan Pablo Cervantes, the registrar of voters for Humboldt County, which has just over 85,000 registered voters. Usually Cervantes and his staff have at least five months of lead time to find voting sites, hire staff and procure all the machines, pens and ballots for a statewide election.

“That’s usually a Herculean effort on its own,” Cervantes said.

A mad dash to find ballots and vote centers

One of the biggest challenges for counties is lining up vendors to print enough ballots – including one absentee ballot for every registered voter in the state, as well as a sufficient number to keep onsite for on-site voting at polling stations. California’s secretary of state has only approved seven vendors to print ballots, not including Orange County, which operates its own printing facility.

The other two logistical hurdles are securing enough sites to serve as vote centers, and hiring and training staff to work them.

Soon after Newsom declared on July 31 that he would call a special election, Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page gathered his staff for an emergency planning meeting. He instructed them to identify which supplies they needed to order as soon as possible, prioritizing products like ballot paper, ballot envelopes and toner for their ballot printers – which might not arrive in time to meet deadlines if they waited for official confirmation of a special election.

Should the governor end up abandoning his plan, Orange County would also be able to use those materials in next year’s June primary election, minimizing potential waste of taxpayer dollars.

“I had to make a decision that I couldn’t wait until Aug. 22 to make sure that I could pull this off,” Page said. “I don’t want to be in a position where my county fails in some way to conduct a free and fair election.”

The county also started emailing people with past experience as election workers to gauge potential interest in working at a vote center during the special election.

California’s last special election

California last had a short-notice, off-year statewide special election in September 2021 when Newsom defeated an attempt to recall him from office.

But because the recall campaign was triggered by a signature drive rather than ordered by the state Legislature, Page said counties had plenty of early warning signs to help them prepare.

“We knew when there were enough signatures to require the recall election,” Page said. “We were very involved when the legislature was pitching ideas of trying to shorten the timeline and have the recall election in August of that year rather than September.”

Even then, when the Legislature was hashing out the fine print about when the election would take place, county registrars brought their vendors to testify that they didn’t have enough paper stock to print ballots in time for an August recall election. The date was ultimately set for Sept. 14.

How much will it cost?

The Legislature and the Department of Finance have yet to release official cost estimates for the statewide special election, but experts say that given inflation, the Nov. 4 special election will almost certainly surpass the recall’s price tag.

During that 2021 effort, the state sent counties more than $240 million and an additional $35 million to the secretary of state’s office to administer the election. In the end, the contest cost less than planned — about $200 million in all, with the counties’ costs totaling just over $174 million.

Newsom has repeatedly promised the state will cover the steep cost counties will incur to administer an unplanned statewide off-year election. Yet in the absence of official statewide numbers, county officials and even Assembly Republicans have released their own estimates. The GOP caucus’s budget analysis projected the statewide contest would cost taxpayers $235.5 million.

A voter fills out their ballot at a vote center at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana on March 5, 2024. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

Page estimated Orange County’s costs will land somewhere between $11.2 million to $12.7 million depending on whether the ballot and county voter information guide will fit in the same envelope or need to be sent separately. Riverside County’s registrar projected upwards of $15 million in costs, and Fresno County was bracing for at least $4 million in unbudgeted expenses.

The counties have implored state leaders to provide them money up front rather than reimburse them after the election.

“The additional expenses tied to a statewide special election would fall almost entirely on counties — imposing a significant and unfunded financial burden on already strained local budgets,” wrote the California State Association of Counties, which represents county supervisors, in partnership with its subsidiary organization that represents clerks and registrars.

H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance, said that the legislation will provide the money to counties in advance, as it did in 2021 before the gubernatorial recall election, although the department has yet to determine the precise amount..

“The state of California is going to pay for it,” Newsom said at a press conference last week, dismissing concerns from county registrars about how they’d afford to administer the election as “deeply disingenuous.”

“There’s no price tag for democracy,” Newsom said.

The governor has also stated that unlike during the recall election, several counties already plan to hold local off-year elections and can add the redistricting question to the existing ballot. As of Monday, only 21 counties are listed as having elections scheduled for Nov. 4, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

But Cervantes, who estimates his county will incur at least $700,000 in additional costs, emphasized that it makes a “massive difference” whether the state pays upfront or requires counties to submit expenses for reimbursement. His vendors won’t allow him to defer payment until he receives the state’s check in the mail.

Cervantes noted that counties pay for elections administration from the same pot of money that funds sheriff’s departments, county jails and the district attorney’s offices, as well as some local wildfire prevention efforts. That’s why it’s so important for the state to cover the costs, he argued.

“You’re talking about taking deputies off the street. You’re talking about reducing social services. Like, it’s a zero-sum game,” Cervantes said. “If I have to spend that money, then other departments won’t be able to.”