Though a new U.S.P.S. policy governing postmarks on mail-in ballots was announced in February, Attorney General Bob Bonta waited until October to notify Californians about the change and how it pertained to the then-upcoming Prop 50 election.
In California, whether your mail-in ballot is counted can come down to a single detail: the postmark stamped on the envelope.
Ballots received after Election Day are only counted if they are postmarked on or before Election Day. But under a little-publicized change in U.S. Postal Service operations, some voters—particularly those living far from regional mail processing centers—can now legally mail their ballots on Election Day and still receive a postmark dated one day late. Those ballots are automatically rejected.
This has created what amounts to two tiers of voting rules, determined not by voter behavior, but by geography.
It took California officials five full weeks to finish counting ballots in the November 2024 general election. But when it came to this year’s special election on Proposition 50—a measure endorsed by Governor Gavin Newsom and the state’s Democratic supermajority to advance a set of aggressively partisan congressional maps with the explicit goal of eliminating Republican seats—the same latitude was not extended to rural voters whose ballots may have been delayed under this new postal rule.
That’s because a quiet shift in how the U.S. Postal Service handles mail in remote regions collided with California’s vote-by-mail system. This has created a trap for voters who live fifty miles from one of six regional mail processing facilities in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, Richmond, Bell Gardens, and Santa Clarita. Ballots dropped in the mail by such voters on Election Day—in a perfectly legal and normal fashion—may now be postmarked a day late, which would automatically disqualify them as “late.”
And late ballots are not counted.
After spending months insisting the state’s redistricting overhaul was about fairness, transparency, and protecting democratic norms, there is now credible cause for concern that state officials did not even finish counting ballots that were submitted on Election Day by rural Californians who followed the rules as they understood them.
A conservative estimate of affected counties would include Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity, Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, Shasta, Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, Butte, Mendocino, Lake, Nevada. This large population of residents—which includes the entirety of central California, the Mojave Desert, and northern California—are predominantly Republican.
So, this year for the first time, some voters were expected to internalize a new rule completely dependent on geography. The important question is: how many of them got this memo?
The U.S.P.S. announced this change back in February, but California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber waited until October to notify Californians, which they did in the form of a single post on the State of California Department of Justice website, its newsletter, and an accompanying Facebook post.
“Now is a perfect time to tell people about this,” said Bonta in defense of his decision to wait right before the election. “This is the voting window. This is when people are thinking about voting.”
So the state waited eight months and issued a few digital bulletins.
Were there any other efforts taken by the state to ensure voters understand this unique situation?
Why couldn’t the state extend the ballot-counting process—as it has done for seemingly every other recent election—for several days to ensure that all ballots submitted on or prior to Election Day had been fairly counted?
And, importantly, is there credence to the idea that this disenfranchised a disproportionately Republican voting bloc that almost assuredly would have been opposed to a political outcome that favored Democrats—an outcome Bonta celebrated as a referendum on “Trump’s lawlessness.”
Our reporters spoke with representatives at the Secretary of State’s Elections Division and its Political Reform Division to get answers. We wanted to determine whether or not the state can track how many ballots returned by rural voters on Election Day were not counted. We were told that the state can indeed see county-by-county data—which would be a starting point to home in on that number—but those metrics were not readily accessible.
One representative did confirm that state officials were aware of the U.S.P.S. change, but they could not confirm whether or not dedicated mailers had been sent to inform rural voters their ballots may not be counted if submitted on Election Day. There was no immediate assurance the state underwent an aggressive awareness campaign with traditional mail notifications, targeted ads on television and local radio, community outreach, or clearly marked ballots asking that ballots be returned before election day to ensure they were counted.
In fact, voters in many counties—including rural ones—continued to receive mail as late as October 29 (too late to ensure safe return under the changed rules) which included only the standard “VOTE TODAY!” flyer rather than urgent instructions about postmark deadlines.
Does this not give the impression that rural voters can submit their mail-in ballot under the same rules and timeframe as any other Californian? Belief in that assumption could have cost voters their place in the count.
“Our election laws provide the backbone for a free and fair election, and as California’s top law enforcement officer, I will do everything in my power to protect your right to vote,” said Bonta.
While state officials have emphasized their commitment to protecting voting rights, the delayed public warning raises unresolved questions about how many rural ballots were rejected under the revised postmark rules. Officials have yet to release county-level data showing the scope of the impact or announce specific changes to ensure voters in remote areas are not similarly affected in future elections.
