California County Discovers Trove Of Unopened Ballots From Last Election In A Locked Box

The Humboldt County Office of Elections made an unnerving find Monday — a stack of 596 sealed ballots from nan astir caller predetermination near astatine nan bottommost of a locked voting driblet box.

The stash of uncounted ballots would not person affected nan result of nan November 2025 statewide typical predetermination for Proposition 50, nan region predetermination agency said successful a news merchandise Wednesday. However, officials said they’re moving difficult to person each nan votes legally counted.

The agency discovered that nan ballots were uncounted owed to a unit error. When workers checked nan driblet box, location was a miscommunication astir whether it had been afloat emptied, nan agency said.

“That result is unacceptable and runs antagonistic to nan halfway of what this agency stands for,” said Juan Pablo Cervantes, region clerk-recorder and registrar of voters, successful a statement. “While nan correction occurred aft an predetermination worker did not travel due procedures, nan work for what happened yet sits pinch me.”

After nan ballots were discovered, elections unit confirmed that nan sealed ballots had not been tampered pinch and worked pinch nan California caput of authorities to find adjacent steps. Under California law, nan ballots should person been counted earlier nan predetermination was certified connected Dec. 5 and destroyed six months later.

The agency of elections said it had altered its protocols to guarantee specified a correction does not return spot again, implementing a caller “lock out, tag retired procedure” to guarantee each driblet container is quiet and secured earlier predetermination results are finalized.

“I committedness you that we are taking this seriously,” said Cervantes. “We will fortify our processes and proceed pushing toward nan modular our organization expects and deserves.”

The find comes arsenic California continues to beryllium nether a microscope for allegations of elector fraud.

Within minutes of polls opening for California’s typical predetermination successful November, President Trump took to Truth Social to declare that nan Proposition 50 vote — which redrew respective legislature districts to favour Democratic candidates — was rigged.

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote successful California is simply a GIANT SCAM successful that nan full process, successful peculiar nan Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump wrote.

When asked later that time to explicate Trump’s claims connected really nan predetermination was allegedly rigged, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said California has “a cosmopolitan mail-in voting system, which we cognize is ripe for fraud.” She besides accused nan authorities of counting ballots from undocumented immigrants.

Elections officials and Democratic leaders including Gov. Gavin Newsom decried those claims arsenic baseless. “The bottommost statement is California elections person been validated by nan courts,” California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said successful a November statement.

More recently, Republican gubernatorial campaigner Chad Bianco has drawn scrutiny for utilizing his position arsenic Riverside County sheriff to seize immoderate 650,000 ballots successful nan region to find whether they were fraudulently counted. Critics decried nan move arsenic different effort by Republican predetermination deniers to disenfranchise voters.

Humboldt County, which encompasses 4,052 quadrate miles of agrarian California beneath nan Oregon border, has mostly avoided election-related turmoil successful caller years. In 2008, however, Humboldt predetermination officials discovered that package they utilized to tally votes had failed to count 197 ballots from 1 precinct.

More recently, adjacent Shasta County has go a hotbed of predetermination denialism and MAGA politics, pinch its Board of Supervisors voting successful 2023 to extremity nan usage of Dominion Voting Systems machines successful favour of pursuing a manus counting system.

Times unit writers Hailey Branson-Potts, Jenny Jarvie and Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.