Thousands of California Voters Receive Duplicate Ballots Ahead of Midterms

Nearly 8,000 voters in Tulare County, California, received duplicate mail-in ballots for the upcoming midterm elections due to an error by the printing company responsible for producing the ballots. The mistake affected approximately 3% of the county's 227,000 registered voters.

In the city of Tulare, about 23% of its over 34,500 registered voters were sent two ballots. Residents contacted the registrar's office with concerns that they might be accused of attempting to vote twice. Mario Garcia, a resident, told ABC 30 that he received his mail on separate days and discovered two ballots.

ProVote Solutions, the printer based in Porterville, has taken responsibility for the error. County officials stated that safeguards are in place to ensure that the duplicate ballots will not be counted. David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, commented to the Los Angeles Times that while human error is inevitable in decentralized election systems, safeguards are designed to mitigate such issues.

In a separate incident, Imperial County reported that 160 voters with confidential status received duplicate ballots due to changes in ballot processing procedures. These instances occurred as federal officials announced charges against 28 individuals in California for election-related crimes, including alleged fraudulent voter registration and false statements on naturalization applications.