It’s amazing that New York state still has races that are undecided some three weeks after the Nov. 3 election.

It’s no wonder state Sen. Michael Gianaris has introduced legislation to speed up the counting of absentee ballots so that elections can be called more quickly.

This is a problem. Six weeks after the June primary, two races for Congress remained undecided with ballots still waiting to be counted. In the wake of the Nov. 3 election there are several races involving both state and federal races waiting to be called while absentee and mail-in votes are counted. Gianaris’ bill would require local board of elections to start counting absentee ballots three hours before polls close on Election Day. It would also require local boards to examine absentee ballot envelopes for validity as they are received.

“It’s embarrassing,” said state Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Astoria and Democratic deputy majority leader in the state Senate, to CNN. “And if we were a swing state in this presidential election, this would be a national scandal.”

Gianaris and the rest of the state Legislature shouldn’t be surprised that counting mail and absentee ballots is taking this long, and we hope legislative discussions on the future of mail-in voting reflect what we are seeing this year. It is better, in terms of quick counting of results, for people to vote in person. And starting the count of mail-in ballots on Election Day may not help results come in any faster if state officials continue to push mail-in voting as a tool to improve voter turnout. It may be necessary to count those ballots when they come in rather than starting three hours before the polls close on Election Day. Of course, counting those ballots days or weeks ahead of time is unacceptable to many because it introduces the possibility for elections shenanigans.

Mail-in voting has shown that it increases voter turnout, and that’s a good thing. But the drawback is that mail-in voting slows the ability to quickly decide a winner.

New York should learn from this election, particularly if mail-in ballots are going to remain a fixture in elections to come. One lesson in particular that we hope state lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have learned is that piecemeal additions to elections law leads to a mess. A top-to-bottom review is needed.