Riverside County mailed out 5,000 duplicate ballots in error, but double votes won’t go through until October.
The mistake was made Monday when Riverside County Elections Supervisor Dan Court released data that showed just over 5,000 ballots had been sent out by mistake to voters, which Court said is just 2.5 percent of the overall votes in the district.
Voter turnout in the Riverside County District 19 race has been fairly consistent over the last six years, with about 2,500 voters casting a ballot in Tuesday’s election.
“We are disappointed that the duplicate ballot was accidentally included in this round of mailings,” said Brian Jones, spokesperson for the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. “This was a simple mistake and not intentional and we are investigating the issue further. We are committed to making sure every single ballot is counted appropriately before the election.”
The incident comes on the heels of a massive investigation into the use of the mail-in ballot in the Nov. 6 election, which found nearly 200,000 votes were counted in violation of the requirement that only one valid signature was required for each ballot.
The report was delivered to the California secretary of state’s office and to Riverside County elections officials on June 23, 2017.
Last week, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas launched an investigation into the Riverside County district 19 race, which was previously under a three-month suspension of voting by mail.
Ridley-Thomas said Sunday that he had obtained the report from Los Angeles County, and it contained information which he believes can shed light on the problems in the Riverside district 19.
“This report paints a clear picture of who and what exactly is making it difficult for eligible voters to vote in this election,” said Ridley-Thomas. “It’s time for the voters of this district to start having their voices heard.”
The county’s supervisor of elections had previously said there would be no more mail-in ballots sent out and that the county was looking into what happened.