California election officials reported that nearly 150,000 mail-in ballots were rejected during the state’s June primary election, representing a rejection rate of 1.73% of all mail ballots cast. This figure marks a notable increase compared to previous elections, with 108,982 ballots rejected in the 2024 primary and 105,818 rejected in the 2022 primary.
The primary driver of rejections was ballots arriving after the deadline, accounting for 93,479 of the rejected ballots in June. This category saw a substantial increase from approximately 70,000 rejections in the 2022 primary and around 76,000 in the 2024 primary. Voting experts indicate that postmarks applied after Election Day, rather than late physical arrival of ballots, appear to be the key issue preventing these votes from being counted. Recent changes to U.S. Postal Service procedures have drawn scrutiny as a potential contributing factor to the timing problems affecting postmark dates.
Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, attributed the jump partly to voters waiting until the final days before casting ballots in the contested gubernatorial race. The late surge in ballot submissions, combined with postal processing changes, may have exacerbated the situation. Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, characterized the rise in rejection rates as a matter requiring investigation and explanation.
Beyond lateness, nearly 44,000 ballots were rejected due to signature mismatches with county records, and over 8,300 were rejected for missing signatures entirely. Other rejection reasons included ballots missing from envelopes, multiple ballots in single envelopes, and duplicate submissions. Rejection rates varied significantly by county, with Tulare County in the Central Valley recording the highest rate at 3.52%, followed by Alpine and Merced counties at 3.36% each.
California’s extended vote-counting timelines, which can stretch weeks or longer, have drawn national attention. The state allows mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive up to seven days later and still be counted. A Brookings Institution report found that mail voting fraud cases remain extraordinarily rare at approximately four cases per 10 million ballots cast nationwide.
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