Nearly 300 voters in Fresno County were given the wrong ballot in the November election, which will not be corrected due to the election being certified last week.
The incorrect ballots in close races throughout the county were not a large enough number to make a difference, Fresno County announced.
The backstory: Fresno County revealed on Nov. 19 that 11 voters were identified as having received and voted on the incorrect ballot.
The big picture: According to a new statement from the county, the Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters Department determined that a routine registration list maintenance activity conducted in September placed some voters in the wrong precinct.
- Fresno County has identified 259 addresses that were incorrectly updated in the maintenance activity.
Go deeper: The department identified that 143 of the incorrectly updated addresses were assigned to a different registration precinct, resulting in voters at those addresses receiving the wrong ballot.
- The other 116 incorrectly updated addresses were assigned to different registration precincts as well, but the voters at those addresses received the correct ballot because the precinct change did not alter any of the elections for those voters.
- There were 295 voters in total who received an incorrect ballot.
What they’re saying: Fresno County said in a statement that the ballots cast by the 295 voters cannot be identified and changed in the November election results.
- “Califonria law requires voting to be a secret, and in the case of vote-by-mail ballots, once a vote-by-mail ballot envelope has been opened and once the ballot has been removed for counting, it is not possible to trace that vote-by-mail ballot to any particular vote-by-mail envelope,” the county said in a statement. “As such, it is impossible to determine a voter’s choice in any contest appearing on any ballot, whether the voter cast a ballot by mail or in person.”
- The county said that the error was due to human decisions and not because of any of the county’s voting systems.
Zoom in: Over 50 incorrect ballots were identified among three of the closest races in Fresno County.
- One ballot was discovered in the Congressional District 13 race, which former Asm. Adam Gray (D–Merced) defeated Rep. John Duarte (R–Modesto) by less than 200 votes.
- There were 11 ballots discovered in the Fresno City Council District 6 race, which Nick Richardson won by around 1,000 votes.
- There were 41 ballots identified in the Fresno Unified School District Area 6 race. Trustee Claudia Cazares won the race by 93 votes.
What we’re watching: Fresno County will conduct a complete review of all addresses in Fresno County early next year using the county’s Regional Address database.
- The county has also identified the staff members responsible for the mistakes and will take corrective action including, but not limited to, retraining and reassigning them.
