About 5,000 individuals in Riverside County will obtain duplicate vote-by-mail ballots for the November midterm election after a “laptop system error,” however the mistake received’t permit voters to solid ballots twice, based on the county registrar.
The pc error was caught over the weekend, however not earlier than 5,000 mail-in ballots had been despatched to voters residing in Canyon Lake, Menifee, Murrieta, Wildomar and Winchester, mentioned Rebecca Spencer, the Riverside County registrar of voters.
Spencer really useful anybody who receives an identical ballots to destroy the additional copy.
“It is very important observe that not one of the duplicate ballots will lead to a voter with the ability to solid multiple poll,” Spencer mentioned in a information launch. “I take election integrity severely and apologize for the inconvenience.”
Every vote-by-mail envelope has a novel bar code that, as soon as scanned, will routinely lock a voter’s document so a second poll can’t be accepted, Spencer mentioned. If a voter returns each ballots, solely the primary could be processed and the second could be “routinely voided.”
Spencer mentioned the pc error is “resolved and procedures have been put in place to stop the error sooner or later.”
The mishap comes months after the Riverside County Board of Supervisors accepted a brand new residents committee centered on election integrity, which may make suggestions to enhance the voting course of.
Although some election vigilantes within the county have claimed widespread voter fraud in current elections, an in-depth investigation by the district lawyer final 12 months discovered just one case of voter fraud from the 2016 election, after pursuing lots of of false leads. There was no proof of widespread voter fraud within the U.S. in recent times, regardless of rising claims of such.
All registered voters, in Riverside and throughout the state, ought to obtain a vote-by-mail poll for the Nov. 8 election, however voters may also solid ballots in particular person or return accomplished ballots to any voting location.
California voters are making their picks in quite a lot of native and statewide races, together with for governor, and on seven statewide propositions.
