Fact Check: California didn’t send 30 million ballots to 22 million voters

(The Center Square) – Rumors are circulating that California mailed 30 million ballots to 22 million registered voters.

The state, which mails ballots to every voter, reported today it has mailed out 22,790,170 vote-by-mail ballots. As of the most recent voter registration update from 60 days before the election, the state had 22,310,352 registered voters, which could suggest up to 479,818 individuals have registered to vote since Sept. 6, or that many individuals have requested new ballots to replace earlier ballots that were lost or not received.

“We cannot say that these additional ballots are due to new registrations over the last two months,” said a spokesperson for the California Secretary of State to The Center Square in response. “Voters who have lost or did not receive their [vote by mail] ballot can request another ballot be issued to them.”

Questions online reflected a potential rumor that the state had sent out more ballots than there are registered voters, which, if true, could reflect that both the state automatically mails a ballot to every registered voter, and that some voters have requested new ballots.

“A Congressman told me two weeks ago that California has 23M registered voters but has mailed out 30M ballots,” said venture capitalist Sean Maguire on an X post with over half a million views. “Can anyone confirm or deny this?”

“I’m hearing one crazy story after another,” responded entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Should a large portion of the 479,818 ballots be from registrations, that could mean one in ten of the state’s eligible but unregistered voters decided to register to vote since Sept. 6 — a number not unheard of for California.

Between the state’s reports on registration data 60 and 15 days before each statewide election, California added 54,729 registered voters for the 2022 midterm election, 807,212 for the 2020 presidential election, 609,782 for the 2018 midterm election, 284,600 for the 2016 presidential election, 168,947 for the 2014 midterm election, and 986,290 for the 2012 presidential election; the stage averaged 277,919 added voters in the last three midterm elections, and 692,701 voters in the last three presidential elections, making this year’s figure, assuming it remains near 479,818, well within historical parameters.

The California Secretary of State issues a daily ballot report during election season, which started on Oct. 8 and lasts until well after the final ballots — which must be postmarked by the end of election day on Nov. 5 — must be received by Nov. 12.

In that report, Democrats’ share of registered voters dropped from 46.42% in 2020 to 46.07%, no-party-preference declined from 23.72% to 21.92%, while Republicans’ registration share rose from 24.16% to 24.81%, and “other” parties’ registration rose the most — from 5.69% to 7.2%.

“Other” parties include the American Independent Party, which has over 6% of registered voters in some counties and is often accidentally selected by voters who are attempting to register as “no party preference” voters, the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, and the Peace and Freedom Party.