Thousands of voters in California have received duplicate ballots, two counties’ Registrars of Voters confirmed ahead of the November election.
Tulare County election officials confirmed that a “printer vendor error caused duplicate Vote By Mail ballots in the City of Tulare,” in a notification posted to the county website.
The vendor has accepted full responsibility for the extra ballots and has worked with the county to send voters postcards with guidance on how to properly cast their votes, according to the website notice.
The instructions remind voters to use only one of the packets to cast their ballots and to destroy the duplicate. Voters should not attempt to return the second ballot or vote twice.
Part of Tulare County is in California’s 22nd Congressional District, one of the key House races that could decide which party controls the lower chamber.
Incumbent Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) wrote a post on X reminding voters to cast their ballots only once.
“About 7,800 voters were affected. This does not mean you can vote twice,” Valadao wrote. “Do not return or try to vote the second ballot—any additional ballots will be rejected.”
Randy Villegas, the Democrat vying for Valadao’s seat, also took to X to share the county’s instructions addressing the duplicate ballot situation.
“I’m grateful to our Tulare County election officials for identifying the printing error that led some voters to receive a duplicate ballot,” Villegas wrote. “Our election officials have safeguards in place to ensure only one ballot is counted.”
A similar situation occurred in Southern California’s Imperial County, where around 160 voters received a second ballot due to a mailing error, the county stated on its website.
The Registrar of Voters’ Office was updating its procedures in response to a change in California’s election laws, according to the statement. Starting on Jan. 1, 2026, elected officials and candidates could change their voter status to “confidential,” which affects how their ballots are processed and mailed.
As a result, the county sent two ballots to roughly 160 individuals with confidential voter status because they were included on both the original ballot mailing list and the new confidential list.
“We understand that receiving more than one ballot may cause confusion, and we take that concern seriously,” Registrar of Voters Linsey Dale said in the statement. “Although this mailing error affected approximately 160 confidential voters, our commitment to conducting a secure and accurate election remains unchanged.”
Another situation that could lead to an additional ballot being sent to the same person is when a person or the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) updates voter registration information within eight weeks of Election Day, the county stated.
The Registrar of Voters’ Office prepares ballot mailing lists roughly eight weeks prior to Election Day. Any changes made to voter registration information after those lists are created can lead to a second ballot being mailed in response to the updated information, according to the statement.
However, the county has “safeguards in place to ensure that only one ballot is accepted and counted for each eligible voter in accordance with California law,” Dale said.
The county reminded voters that it is illegal to vote more than once in the same election.
This comes as California faces a federal investigation into allegations of noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. Additionally, the U.S. Justice Department recently charged 28 noncitizens living in California with election crimes.
