Thousands of California voters received duplicate mail-in ballots before the midterm elections, raising fresh questions about the reliability and security of the state’s voting process.
The mistake occurred after a printing company that has produced Tulare County ballots for years accidentally printed duplicate copies. The error affected nearly 8,000 voters, many of whom were left uncertain about how to proceed.
Approximately 3% of Tulare County’s 227,000 registered voters received duplicate ballots. In the Republican-leaning city of Tulare, which has slightly more than 34,500 registered voters, the error affected about 23% of the electorate.
Concern over the duplicate mail-in ballots prompted residents to call or visit the registrar’s office in Visalia last week. Some feared they might be investigated or accused of trying to cast two votes.
Mario Garcia realized something was wrong after finding a ballot in his mailbox on two different days.
“I waited a couple of days to pick up my mail, and I picked it up on Friday and I saw one ballot, and yesterday I went again to get the mail and I saw the other one,” Garcia told ABC 30.
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Garcia said his wife and son also received two ballots.
Michelle Baldwin, chief clerk for the Tulare County Registrar of Voters, said Porterville-based ProVote Solutions, the printing company responsible for the error, had accepted full responsibility. She also said safeguards were in place to ensure the extra ballots could not be counted.
“Accidents do happen,” David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research and a former Justice Department voting enforcement attorney, told the Los Angeles Times.
“Our elections are incredibly decentralized, run by hundreds of thousands of human beings. As a result, we know there is going to be human error, but our elections are not designed to be perfect. That’s impossible.”
Tulare County was not the only California jurisdiction to report a ballot mailing problem. Imperial County officials said Monday that 160 voters with confidential status received duplicate ballots in a separate error tied to changes in ballot-processing procedures required under California law.
The ballot incidents were reported as federal officials announced charges Monday against 28 people in California in connection with election-related crimes, including alleged fraudulent voter registration and false statements on naturalization applications.
