California election experts sound alarm as rejected ballots quadruple

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SACRAMENTO — As Democratic leaders in California challenge President Trump’s latest effort to restrict the use of mail-in ballots, they also must grapple with a troubling development in the last election.A significant number of mail-in ballots arrived too late to be counted in the Nov.4 special election for Proposition 50, Gov.

Gavin Newsom’s successful measure to reconfigure the state’s congressional districts, according to state data.Ballots came in late at an average rate four times higher than that of the 2024 election, with rural counties seeing some of the biggest increases, according to a Times review.“Something changed,” said Melvin E.

Levey, who heads the Merced County Registrar of Voters.“We don’t like seeing late ballots and if someone has made the effort to vote, we want to count it.”Merced saw almost a sevenfold increase in late-arriving mail ballots in the November election compared with the year before.Vote-by-mail ballots are considered late if they are not postmarked on or ahead of election day or do not arrive within seven days of election day.The issue appears to be linked to the U.S.

Postal Service, which last year reduced the number of trips to pick up mail at post offices in mostly rural areas.Election officials warned before Nov.

4 that the Postal Service changes could delay the postmarking of ballots and lead to votes not being counted.During the Nov.

4 election in California, an average of 8 out of every 1,000 vote-by-mail ballots were rejected by counties because they arrived too late, according to Secretary of State data.In the 2024 general election, which included the presidential race, an average of 2 of every 1,000 vote-by-mail ballots were rejected for being late.In Kern County, for example, 3,303 mail-in ballots — or 1.95% of returned mail-in ballots — were not counted in the 2025 special election because they arri...