California New
Some California voters did get two mail ballots, because of vendor printing errors, and only one ballot per voter will count.
The rumor: Misleading “California counties sent voters duplicate mail ballots on purpose so people can vote twice.”
The facts: San Luis Obispo County says its vendor processed a supplemental mailing twice, sending duplicates to 2,666 voters, and its registration system flags a second ballot from the same voter. Tulare and Imperial counties reported smaller printing errors. No evidence shows the mailings were intentional, and voting twice is a crime. If you got two ballots, vote one, destroy the other, and call your county elections office with questions.
How this story developed
- Influencer posts on X frame the duplicates as deliberate and tie them to noncitizen voting. Imperial County reports 160 duplicate ballots. No evidence the mailings were intentional.
- San Luis Obispo County says its vendor sent duplicate ballots to 2,666 voters and its system will count only one per voter. The Los Angeles Times reports thousands statewide.
- Tulare County Elections Office says a printing error sent duplicate ballots to some Tulare city voters and mails postcards telling them to destroy the extra ballot.
Sources
- KEYT: San Luis Obispo County explains 2,666 duplicate ballots, Oct 20 Other source Archived copy
- KMPH: Tulare printing error sends duplicate ballots, Oct 15 News report Checked Archived copy
- Los Angeles Times: thousands got duplicate mail ballots, Oct 20 News report Checked Archived copy
- The National News Desk via KMPH: Tulare and Imperial duplicates, Oct 21 News report Checked Archived copy
- UW CIP: no evidence duplicate mailings were intentional, Oct 22 Fact-check Checked Archived copy