5,000 Duplicate Ballots Erroneously Mailed To Southwest RivCo Voters

SOUTHWEST RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A computer system mistakenly generated duplicate mailing files for 5,000 Riverside County voters, and now those residents are getting two identical ballots for the Nov. 8 General Election, county officials confirmed Monday.

The computer glitch was identified over the weekend, but the ballot packets were already delivered to the U.S. Postal Service. Affected voters live in the areas of Canyon Lake, Menifee, Murrieta, Wildomar and Winchester, according to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.

“It is important to note that none of the duplicate ballots will result in a voter being able to cast more than one ballot,” said Registrar of Voters Rebecca Spencer. “I take election integrity seriously and apologize for the inconvenience.”

Each vote-by-mail envelope has a bar code. When the bar code is scanned as accepted at the Registrar of Voters office, it automatically locks the voter’s record so that the person can only cast one ballot, according to Spencer.

If a voter who received two ballots returned both, only one would count — the first ballot received would be processed and the second would be automatically voided, according to Spencer.

Anyone who received two ballots should vote and return one of the ballots, then destroy the other, the registrar recommended. It does not matter which ballot the voter returns as both are the same, according to the registrar.

"The computer system error is resolved and procedures have been put in place to prevent the error in the future," according to a news release from the county.

Voters with questions or concerns regarding their ballot are asked to call the Riverside County Registrar of Voters at 951-486-7200.