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View Winners → Politics May 10, 2022
Normandie Avenue in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA. | Photo courtesy of Downtowngal/Wikimedia Commons
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A woman walking her dog in East Hollywood says she found more than 100 unopened, undelivered ballots on the sidewalk, and the Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office and the United States Postal Service are investigating.
Christina Repaci told Fox 11 that while walking her dog Saturday, she saw the envelopes in a USPS box, picked some of them up and saw they were ballots. She took them home and posted videos of the ballots on social media to share what she found, asking for guidance of what to do with them. She said she also called politicians and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“I actually called the Sheriff’s Department. I couldn’t get through, so I emailed them,” she told Fox 11. “I got an email back from a deputy basically in so many words saying it wasn’t their problem, and to contact the USPS.”
She contacted the Registrar’s Office and asked them to pick up the ballots. She said Dean Logan, who oversees the Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk offices, picked them up.
The L.A. County Registrar’s Office released a statement:
“Our office was notified over the weekend of a mail tray found containing approximately 104 unopened, outbound Vote by Mail ballots and additional mail pieces. Thanks to the cooperation of the person who found the ballots, we were able to quickly respond and coordinate the secure pickup of the ballots. We have reissued new ballots to the impacted voters. Early signs indicate that this was an incident of mail theft and not a directed attempt at disrupting the election. We are cooperating with the United States Postal Service and law enforcement to investigate.
“Security protocols such as signature verification are in place to protect against any misuse or wrongdoing of Vote by Mail ballots. If a voter sees or hears something that could impact the voting process, they are encouraged to call our office directly at 800-815-2666 or email voterinfo@rrcc.lacounty.gov.”
California voters can fill out ballots and mail them from home — with no postage needed — or deliver them to any of the registrar’s official ballot drop box locations around the county through Election Day. A signature is required for a vote to count.
Voters who return their ballot through the U.S. Postal Service can track it by signing up for “Where’s My Ballot?”
Voters can also choose to vote in person at any vote center.
