Nearly 150,000 mail-in ballots were discarded during California's June primary election. This spike in rejections occurred primarily because ballots arrived too late to be counted, despite state laws providing a grace period for postmarked envelopes.
The jump to 150,000 rejected ballots
The scale of ballot disqualifications in the June primary represents a notable increase over recent electoral cycles. According to the report, California saw 108,982 rejected mail ballots in 2024—a 1.56% rejection rate—and 105,818 rejections in 2022 . The most recent primary saw this number climb to nearly 150,000, signaling a breakdown in the mail-in process.
Lateness was the primary driver of this trend,accounting for 93,479 rejections. This is a sharp increase from the roughly 76,000 late ballots seen in 2024 and 70,000 in 2022. While California allows ballots to arrive up to seven days after Election Day if they are postmarked by the deadline, a significant volume of envelopes appeared to be postmarked after the cutoff.
How USPS distribution center consolidation delayed postmarks
Voting experts suggest that the surge in late arrivals is linked to systemic changes within the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). As reported, the USPS has consolidated its processing facilities, which often means these centers are now located further away from the communities they serve. This geographical shift can delay the application of a postmark, as the date reflected may be when the ballot reached a distribution center rather than when the voter actually mailed it.
This logistical friction is not isolated to the West Coast. Wisconsin officials have also expressed concerns regarding USPS delays that caused ballots to arrive after Election Day. The tension between state-level efforts to expand voting access and the federal government's postal logistics is creating a gap where legal voters are disenfranchised by administrative timing.
Tulare County's 3.52% rejection rate
The impact of these rejections was not felt equally across the state. Data from the secretary of state's office shows that Tulare County in the Central Valley suffered the highest rejection rate at 3.52%. Alpine County and Merced County followed closely, both reporting rejection rates of 3.36%.
Beyond postal delays, other clerical errors contributed to the total. Nearly 44,000 ballots were rejected due to signature mismatches, while over 8,300 were tossed for missing signatures entirely. A smaller number of cases involved duplicate voting (743 instances) or envelopes that were empty or contained multiple ballots.
The 4-per-10-million fraud rate
While some critics point to mail-in voting as a vulnerability, the data suggests that the primary risk is administrative failure rather than criminal intent. A 2025 Brookings Institution report found that mail voting fraud is exceedingly rare, occurring in only about four cases per 10 million mail ballots nationwide.
The slow pace of California's counting process, exacerbated by these high rejection volumes, stands in stark contrast to the rapid finalization of results seen in states like Texas and Florida. This delay often fuels public skepticism, even when the actual rate of fraud remains statistically negligible.
Mindy Romero's call for a formal investigation
Mindy Romero, the director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, has stated that this increase in rejected ballots demands a formal investigation. There are several specific points that remain unverified : it is unclear exactly how many voters were affected by the specific USPS distribution center shifts versus those who simply mailed their ballots too late.
Furthermore, it remains to be seen if the "chaotc" nature of the gubernatorial race—which may have led to a last-minute surge in voting—was the primary driver of the late postmarks. The report highlights that election officials had warned voters to mail ballots early, but the effectiveness of these warnings in the face of USPS systemic changes remains an open question.
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