President-elect Donald Trump has frequently warned of the great potential for election fraud in states where mass mail-in ballots are used, particularly when those mail-in ballots are still being counted long after the election was held.

That is the case in California, where the head of the Republican National Committee has said it is "absurd" that thousands of mail-in ballots have yet to be counted more than three weeks after the Nov. 5 election, Fox News reported.

The RNC and other GOP organizations have filed lawsuits in California and multiple other states to try and stop them from continuing to count ballots long after the election occurred, given the heightened potential for fraud to take place.

California's lengthy ballot-counting process is "absurd"

In an X post on Monday, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley provided a pair of updates about the post-election situation on the ground in California.

First, Whatley wrote, "The RNC and @CAGOP have been on the ground with attorneys and observers across the state throughout the process of voting, curing, and counting."

Second, he continued, "It is absurd for California to accept ballots by mail up to 7 days after Election Day and take almost a month to count them. The RNC has filed lawsuits to stop this and will continue to fight aggressively to force all states to stop accepting ballots after Election Day."

"Every vote in every state matters, and the RNC will work with our state parties and candidates to ensure Election Integrity across the country," Whatley added. "It is clear that we need real election reforms to Protect the Vote in California."

Fox News noted that one of Whatley's senior advisers, Gates McGavick, said in a statement, "The RNC, NRCC, and CAGOP's election integrity operation was on the ground in California before Election Day, on Election Day, and has continued working ever since November 5th. Our attorneys and trained volunteers are in place to ensure transparency throughout the election process."

Lengthy ballot-counting process isn't necessarily evidence of fraud

Of course, despite the expressed concerns about the potential for fraud and skepticism of seemingly unnecessarily lengthy ballot-counting procedures, Democrats and the media have pushed back hard against any suggestions that anything untoward has happened while ballots continue to be counted weeks after the election occurred.

USA Today published an insistent "fact check" which asserted that just because it was taking so long to count ballots in California didn't mean that any fraud was taking place or that elections were "rigged" to reach a specified conclusion.

Rather, the outlet claimed that the ballot-counting process took so long because of the state's election laws, primarily the fact that a majority of voters in the state use mail-in ballots, which can be received up to a week late if they are postmarked by Election Day, as well as various and time-consuming "anti-fraud measures" that ballots are subjected to before being counted.

Mass mail-in ballots and same-day registration

Spectrum News reported that California is one of just a few states that automatically send out mail-in ballots to all active registered voters, many of which aren't turned in until the last day and which then must be verified as legitimate through signature comparisons and other checks.

Another reason the ballot-counting process takes so long is that California has same-day voter registration, in which voters can register to vote and cast a conditional ballot at the same time, after which election officials must verify the voter's registration information before the ballot can be counted.

Still another reason for the delay, as alluded to by Whatley and mentioned by USA Today, is that time is provided after the election for voters who made mistakes on their mail-in ballot to be contacted and allowed an opportunity to correct or "cure" those mistakes before their ballot is added to the totals.