LOS ANGELES – California election officials rejected more than 100,000 mail-in ballots during the March presidential primary, according to data obtained by The Associated Press highlighting an obvious gap in the state’s effort to ensure that every vote is counted.
With the raging coronavirus pandemic, California is part of a growing number of states that increase postal voting to avoid crowds at polling places. President Donald Trump is among those questioning the integrity of mail-order elections, while supporters say they are as reliable as polling places and offer greater flexibility for voters.
But while polling places include workers who can help people who have questions about how to fill out ballots, a voter has no support at home, and therefore problems can arise.
The California secretary of state’s election data obtained by the AP showed that 102,428 mail ballots were disqualified in the state’s 58 counties, approximately 1.5% of the nearly 7 million mail-in ballots. That percentage is the highest in a primary since 2014, and the overall number is the highest in a state election since 2010.
Two years ago, the national average for rejected mail ballots in the general election was approximately 1.4% and in the 2016 presidential election year it was 1%, according to a study by the U.S. Electoral Assistance Commission.
By far the most common problem in California was missing the deadline for mailing and mailing the ballot. To count in the election, ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received within three days. Statewide, 70,330 ballots did not meet those marks.
Another 27,525 did not have a signature or the signature did not match the one registered for the voter.
Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation seeking to improve elections, called the countless number disheartening.
“The only thing worse than people who don’t vote is people who try to vote and their ballot is not counted,” he said. Counting voided votes “can make a difference in a closed contest.”
The data did not break down the ballots without counting by game record. While the overall number was large in March, if equal in November, it is unlikely to affect the presidential race: Trump lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 4.3 million votes.
But there are expected to be at least several contests contested in the US House of Representatives in which a few votes could tip the balance. In 2018, Democrat TJ Cox upset Republican David Valadao by less than 1,000 votes in a Central Valley district. They have a rematch in November.
Local races are sometimes decided by a handful of votes.
California has traditionally offered voting by mail only to those who request ballots. Over time, the number has grown to account for more than half of all ballots cast. In response to the coronavirus outbreak, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in June signed a law requiring county election officials to mail a ballot to all of the state’s nearly 21 million registered voters for the November election.
He called voting by mail safely and securely, noting a number of studies that found no evidence of significant fraud. States across the political spectrum rely solely on mail ballots, including Colorado, Utah, and Washington.
In preparation for November, the state is launching a ballot tracking tool that will quickly alert voters if they need to take action, such as adding a missing signature. Another change: The state is expanding the window for mail ballots to arrive up to 17 days after Election Day.
Despite voting by mail this year, Trump called the vote by mail a “terrible thing” prone to abuse, warning without evidence that “there are thousands upon thousands of people sitting in someone’s living room, signing ballots all over the place”. “
With the COVID-19 pandemic that led many states to seek near-universal mail voting to minimize the health risks posed by crowds inside, Republicans and national Democrats have argued about the safety of traveling votes through the United States Postal Service.
Republican Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman is among those who see it as a secure system. Alex Padilla, California’s Democratic secretary of state, says that “there is no safer way … to exercise your right to vote than from the safety and convenience of your own home.”
Research by Alexander’s group found that an average of nearly two out of every 100 ballots mailed were voided in the state elections between 2010 and 2018. However, during that time, the disqualification rate has improved, falling further. from 140,000 ballots, or 2.9% in the 2010 general election, to 84,825 ballots, or 1%, in 2018.
Last March, the highest rejection rate in California occurred in San Francisco, where 9,407 ballots, or nearly 5% of the total, were reserved, mainly because they did not arrive on time. By contrast, in rural Plumas County, northeast of Sacramento, all 8,207 ballots received by mail were accepted.
In Los Angeles County, nearly 2,800 ballots were voided because the voter forgot to sign it and then could not be found to correct the error. Across the state, that sloppy mistake increased nearly 13,000 ballots.
More than 1,000 ballots were disqualified in Fresno County because the signature did not match the one on file with election officials. The same problem rejected more than 1,300 ballots in San Diego County, and more than 14,000 statewide. In some of those cases, voting experts say, a family member could have signed for others in the home, which is illegal.
Apparently, some voters filled out their ballots and then left them on the kitchen table: in more than 800 cases, the envelopes were returned to election officials without the ballot marked inside.
Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said that ultimately a voter has the responsibility to complete the ballot correctly and mail it in on time. Sometimes, “it’s just a product of voter forgetfulness,” Kelley said.
