2,100 LA County Voters Receive Mail-In Ballots Without Presidential Candidates

By Dana Cruz First Posted: Oct 07, 2020 04:54 AM EDT

Californians Vote By Mail Ahead Of November's Election

(Photo : by Mario Tama/Getty Images) A voter places their ballot in a mail-in ballot dropoff box outside of a library ahead of Election Day on October 5, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.

Around 2,100 Los Angeles voters received mail-in ballots that did not have any way to vote for a presidential candidate.

The "faulty" mail-in ballots were confirmed by the county's Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office on late Monday. It is believed these ballots were sent to Los Angeles voters in the Woodland Hills area.

According to LA Mag, the botched mail-in ballots featured a twice-printed list of state propositions. However, it did not offer the affected Los Angeles voters ways to vote for President Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or any other presidential hopeful.

Since the state had fewer in-person polling places, California is under a lot of pressure of making mail-in voting a success.

The state is hoping to keep its residents at home, so they made an effort to provide mail-in ballots to every one of California's 21 million registered voters, reported FOX 11.

LA County voters make up 5.6 million of this group. The incorrect ballots were part of this effort.

County Clerk Apologizes for Error

According to California state law, absentee ballots have to be mailed out 29 days ahead of Election Day. If this effort does not take effect, the state will have to witness many frustrated voters.

Safety protocols amid the pandemic could result in slower voting times and longer waiting times for people who will vote on November 3.

The county clerk's spokesman Michael Sanchez apologized for the error. He knew there were only a small number of Los Angeles voters affected by the slip-up, but he still extended apologies on behalf of the office.

He told voters to discard the ballots and send only the accurate ones. If a voter had already filled out and mailed in their original ballot, their votes can still be canceled once the county clerks get the new one.

A Complicated Election

Attorney Christy Gargalis told Los Angeles Times she was surprised to see that her mail-in ballot was POTUS-less. She received her ballot along with her husband and sister. Gargalis said she has always been an in-person voter.

"I wasn't even planning on looking at the ballot until the day I was going to vote," she said. But she felt like there would be something "different" about this coming election, and she had to take a look.

Later on, she found out she was not the only one who had a faulty ballot. Her neighbors also had the same problem.

With the county clerk meaning to smooth out the error, the county clerk promised to soon send out the correct ballots.

"Tomorrow morning we will be mailing out new, corrected ballots with a letter describing the error," said Sanchez.

If this ripple does get resolved, mail-in voting will still prove a challenge and can be rather complicated. Election researchers found that, in the last decade, 1.7 percent of California mail-in ballots were rejected for various reasons.

If the voter turnout in the previous presidential election is followed, there will be about 250,000 ballots that won't be counted this year.