Thieves swipe Bay Area mail-in ballots as questions swirl about vote count

Thieves snatched a batch of mail-in ballots in the Bay Area earlier this week as California’s slow vote count faces intense scrutiny days after Tuesday’ slowly counts votes in the June 2 primary’s primary elections.It’s unclear from where the mail was stolen, but investigators believe it could have been from a blue collection box or a community mailbox.The unopened ballots were delivered to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters in San Jose after being recovered from bins of stolen mail at a Grocery Outlet store in Morgan Hill, the Postal Inspection Service said.“It was about 29 ballots,” Matt Moreles of Registrar of Voters told NBC Bay Area.“They were all sealed inside their return envelopes.

So we were able to signature check them and verified they were valid and then we did count them.”The store contained multiple bins of stolen mail, including the unopened ballots.“Mail thieves are looking for financial instruments that they can get out of the mail,” inspector Matthew Norfleet told the outlet.“And sometimes they pick up some election mail.

There was no reason to think the election-related mail was targeted.If anything it was left behind.”The Postal Inspection Service says residents should double-check that their ballots were delivered and check local tracking tools.“You can log onto our website, sccvote.org, and we have a look-up tool there,” Moreles said.

“We also have a service that we go through, through the state, called Where’s-My-Ballot where you can sign up for text alerts or email alerts, so that as soon as we check in your ballot, you get notified as well.”The investigation into the stolen ballots continues as California grapples with a painstakingly slow election process.Los Angeles’ mayoral and California’s gubernatorial races have yet to be decided.While incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and Democrat Xavier Becerra will advance to the November general election, their challengers have not yet been determined.In...