Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk criticized the US electoral process on Saturday, pointing out that California had yet to officially announce the results of the presidential election more than two weeks after it took place. He compared this with India's voting system, which he praised for efficiently counting 640 million votes in just one day.

In a post on X, the social media platform he owns, Musk wrote, "India counted 640 million votes in 1 day. California is still counting votes," and added a facepalm emoji to express his frustration.

The tech billionaire's post comes after California is still counting votes for the US Presidential Election 2024 held on November 5. According to the Los Angeles Times, citing the Secretary of State's office, an estimated 570,500 ballots statewide were yet to be counted.

The SpaceX CEO's comment on India's electoral system came a day after vote counting for Maharashtra and Jharkhand state assembly elections and by-elections concluded on Saturday. 

The post sparked further conversation, with Musk responding to another comment highlighting how California, after 18 days, was still in the process of counting votes.

Why is California's vote count taking so many days?

California, the most populous state in the US with nearly 39 million residents, is known for its slow vote counting. Despite having around 16 million voters in the November 5 election, the state has yet to process over 300,000 ballots. According to reports from the Los Angeles Times, more than 570,000 ballots statewide remain uncounted.

The prolonged delay is due to Californians increasingly opting for mail-in voting instead of voting in person. The state, along with seven others and Washington, D.C., mails ballots to all registered voters, making the process of counting election results more time-consuming.

"In Orange and Los Angeles counties, there were still an estimated 67,753 and 79,400 ballots left to process, respectively, as of the last update on Saturday in Orange County. Officials in neighbouring San Bernardino and Riverside counties likewise estimated 75,600 and 35,600 votes, respectively, remained to be counted in their areas on Saturday," according to Los Angeles Daily news.

The in-mail voting makes the process tedious and time consuming because election officials must check for duplicate ballots, verify signatures and sometimes remake ballots that have been been flattened, damaged or marked improperly, according to the California Voter Foundation.