More than 148,000 California mail-in ballots were rejected during the June primary, according to newstate election data— and nearly two-thirds were disqualified for the same reason.
The most common problem wasn't voter fraud or paperwork errors. It was ballots arriving too late to be counted. Signature issues were the second-leading cause, and together the two problems accounted for more than 9 out of every 10 rejected ballots statewide.
As California prepares for the Nov. 3 general election, here's what the data reveals about why ballots were rejected, which counties had the highest rejection rates and what voters can do to avoid having their ballots tossed this fall.
Main reasons June primary mail-in ballots were rejected
The most common reason vote-by-mail ballots were rejected was that they were received
too late, accounting for 93,479 of the 148,241 rejected ballots.
“Ballots rejected due to lateness are caused primarily by being postmarked too late to count, not because they arrived too late to count,” Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, wrote in an email to the Associated Press.
For a mail-in ballot to be counted, it must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by county election officials within seven days after an election. State officials recommend mailing ballots at least five days before an election. If mailing on Election Day, officials advise getting a hand-stamped postmark from a postal worker inside a United States Post Office.
The second-most common reason mail-in ballots were rejected was a non-matching signature (43,977 ballots).
With each ballot, election officials verify that the signature on a voter's registration card matches the signature on the ballot. Should election officials find a signature missing or not matching, a voter will be notified and given a deadline to fix the signature.
Together, the top two issues accounted for more than 92% of all rejected vote-by-mail ballots.
Here’s a full breakdown of reasons underlying rejected ballots based on California Secretary of State data:
- Ballot received too late: 93,479 ballots (63.1% of all rejections)
- Non-matching signature: 43,977 (29.7%)
- No voter signature: 8,313 (5.6%)
- Voter already voted: 743 (0.5%)
- Ballot missing from envelope: 640 (0.4%)
- No ID provided: 581 (0.4%)
- Multiple ballots in one envelope: 451 (0.3%)
- Other reasons: 33 ballots
Counties with the greatest/least mail-in ballot rejections
Tulare County had the highest rate (3.52%) of rejected vote-by-mail ballots, with 2,319 rejected out of 65,926 returned.
Other counties with higher percentages of rejected mail-in ballots include:
- Alpine County: 3.36% (17 of 506 returned)
- Merced County: 3.36% (1,504 of 44,772 returned)
- San Luis Obispo County: 3.34% (3,319 of 99,344 returned)
- Stanislaus County: 3.07% (3,063 of 99,859 returned)
Amador County had the lowest mail-in ballot rejection rate (0.82%), with 127 rejected out of 15,427 returned.
Additional counties with lower ballot rejection rates include:
- Placer County: 0.93% (1,168 of 125,996 returned)
- El Dorado County: 1.16% (841 of 72,809 returned)
- Sacramento County: 1.17% (4,534 of 388,970 returned)
- Lassen County: 1.18% (87 of 7,352 returned)
How does June’s primary ballot rejection rate compare to 2022
About 6.66 million mail-in ballots were returned in California's June 2022 primary, according to state data.
Of those ballots, 105,818 were rejected, a rejection rate of about 1.59%. That's roughly 42,000 fewer rejected ballots than in the June 2026 primary, which had higher voter turnout.
The most common reason ballots were rejected in the June 2022 primary was that they arrived too late, followed by signature mismatches.
When is California’s general election?
California's general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
The last day to register to vote for California’s general election is Oct. 19, according to state officials. Counties will begin mailing ballots to registered voters no later than Oct. 5.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Thousands of California primary mail-in ballots rejected. Here's why
