Some California voters are voicing concerns of voter fraud ahead of recall election on Sept. 14
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk office quelled concerns that mail-in ballots for the upcoming recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom are vulnerable to fraud due to two holes on ballot envelopes that reportedly show whether a person voted to recall the governor.
“This has been part of the envelope design for years. The holes serve both an accessibility purpose and a quality assurance purpose after the fact to validate no voted ballots are left unprocessed; an established, recommended practice,” the office said on Twitter Thursday.
This has been part of the envelope design for years. The holes serve both an accessibility purpose and a quality assurance purpose after the fact to validate no voted ballots are left unprocessed; an established, recommended practice.
— Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (@LACountyRRCC) August 20, 2021
“The commonly used envelope design does not interfere with postal or sorting equipment.”
The tweets from the office came after some California voters voiced concern over the holes, with former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell posting about it on Twitter.
. @GavinNewsom needs to be asked if his team did this on purpose. This is cheating. pic.twitter.com/21Ws8MkeT2
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) August 19, 2021
“This is the sketchy part. This is the crazy part,” the woman says in the video, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
“You have to pay attention to these two holes that are in the front of the envelope,” she continues. “You can see if someone, from the outside of the mail-in ballot, you can see if somebody has voted yes to recall Newsom. This is very sketchy and irresponsible in my opinion, but this is asking for fraud.”
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk office added in a comment to Fox News Friday that, “the design is a recommended accessibility practice by civic design consultants. The intent and purpose of the holes are two-fold, to assist with accessibility for low vision voters to locate where to sign the envelope and to ensure no ballots were missed and left in envelopes once our office has received and processed them.”
“It is important to note that voters have control of how they place their ballot in the envelope and have multiple options for returning their ballots (mail, Ballot Drop Box, or at a Vote Center) to ensure secure and appropriate handling,” the comment added, and noted that voters can also track their returned ballots.
By Emma Colton
