Steve Hilton suggests a voter ID law in California would speed up vote counting. Critics disagree

NORWALK, Calif. () — Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton suggested a proposed California voter ID law would speed up ballot counting, while critics argue the measure could create additional delays.

“If we had voter ID, we wouldn’t need all this time that it takes for signature verification,” Hilton said Tuesday morning outside the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office in Norwalk.

“That seems to be the delay, is the need to do signature verification,” Hilton added. “There aren’t enough people in the vote centers. There aren’t enough resources for the counting. If we had voter ID, all of that need would be removed.”

Critics of the proposed law, which California voters will consider in November, contend the measure would slow vote counting because voters would need to provide a driver’s license number or Social Security number on their ballots. Those numbers would then need to be verified and, in some cases, could be missing.

Hilton is not alleging voter fraud.

“We’ve seen nothing that would warrant that kind of intervention, but the more important point is (U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli), who the president asked to make sure everything is OK,” Hilton said. “As far as I can see, from what Bill’s been saying, and remember he has all the resources of the Justice Department, he hasn’t seen anything that would be of concern for that kind of intervention.”

Hilton on Tuesday advanced to the general election for California governor, News projects. He will face Democrat Xavier Beccera in the November runoff.

Becerra said he wishes Californians would have voted earlier, but it’s important to count every vote.

Becerra said that unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud are just a way to make it harder for Californians to vote. He said he wants to make it easier for people to vote, even if it takes time to count those votes.