Staggering number of ballots rejected in California primary as slow pace cripples count

California’s promise of easier voting is showing its faults after nearly 150,000 mail-in ballots were rejected in June — the highest number in recent statewide primaries.The Golden State has spent years expanding access to the ballot box, sending every registered voter a mail-in ballot and allowing ballots to arrive up to seven days after Election Day — as long as the envelope is postmarked on time.But even with that extended deadline, late ballots were by far the biggest reason votes were thrown out, according to data from the California secretary of state’s office the AP reported.A total of 148,241 mail ballots were rejected in June, representing 1.73% of all mail ballots cast.That’s up from 108,982 rejected ballots in the 2024 primary and 105,818 in 2022.The biggest culprit: timing.More than 93,000 ballots were rejected because they arrived too late, compared with roughly 70,000 in 2022 and about 76,000 in 2024.

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By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Never miss a story Voting experts say the problem may not be when ballots arrive at election offices, but when they are postmarked by the US Postal Service — a process that has changed as the agency consolidates operations and routes mail through larger processing centers.“Ballots rejected due to lateness are caused primarily to being postmarked too late to count, not because they arrived too late to count,” Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, wrote in an email.Alexander said the spike deserves scrutiny, especially after many voters waited until the final days to decide in a chaotic and wide-open governor’s race.Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, said the increase in late ballot rejections raises questions about what is driving the change.Re...