Oops: Ballots Found Uncounted in Locked Humboldt Drop Box
![Seth Ferguson drops off his ballot at the collection box outside the Humboldt County Office of Elections on Tuesday. Ferguson said it was a no all the way for him. [Photo by Mark McKenna]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/KYM.CA_.RECALL.ELECTION.DSC_1551-noresize-300x200.jpg)
[Stock image by Mark McKenna]
Press release from the Humboldt County Elections Office:
On Monday, May 4, Humboldt County Office of Elections staff discovered 596 uncounted sealed ballots from the November 4, 2025 Statewide Special Election inside a locked ballot drop box. Under Section 2.5 of Article II of the California Constitution, these ballots should have been counted before the election was certified on Dec. 5, 2025.
Immediately after the discovery, elections staff worked to ensure proper protocol was followed. It was confirmed the uncounted ballots had not been tampered with because the drop box was locked and the ballots were sealed. The Humboldt County Office of Elections then worked in partnership with the California Secretary of State to determine next steps.
The Office of Elections and the state have both confirmed that counting these ballots will not change the result of the November 4, 2025 Statewide Special Election. However, it is important that Humboldt County Office of Elections explore every available option to get these votes counted.
Under Elections Code §17302, ballots from the November 4, 2025 Statewide Special Election must be destroyed six months after the election was certified. However, the County of Humboldt will be pursuing all legal avenues to get the ballots counted.
The Humboldt County Office of Elections has determined that this error occurred when election workers checked the drop box and there was a miscommunication about whether it had been fully emptied. The Elections Office has already updated its protocols to make sure this will not happen again. A lock out, tag out procedure is now in place for every drop box prior to certification to ensure each one is physically verified as empty and secured before elections results are finalized.
The Humboldt County Office of Elections will continue to pursue options to count these ballots and will provide the public when an update as more information becomes available.
Below is a statement from Humboldt County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes:
“On Monday night around 6 p.m. I was made aware that a ballot drop box from the November 2025 Special Election for Prop 50 was not fully emptied. As a result, 596 ballots were left uncounted. That outcome is unacceptable and runs counter to the core of what this office stands for.
While the mistake occurred after an election worker did not follow proper procedures, the responsibility for what happened ultimately sits with me. I did not have strong enough controls in place to prevent this, but we do now. We have taken corrective action and already updated our protocols. A new lock out, tag out procedure has been implemented for every ballot drop box to ensure each box is physically verified as empty and secured before election results are finalized.
We ask a lot of voters. We ask you to participate, to trust the process and to believe that your vote will be counted. 596 voters did exactly what we asked of them, and we fell short.
We will be pursuing all legal avenues to get your ballots counted.
My team and I take great care to ensure accurate elections, and we were incredibly disappointed to discover this error. This discovery highlights why strong systems, redundancy and clear accountability must be in place at every step in the election process. In this case, those safeguards were not sufficient. That responsibility is mine and I am deeply sorry.
I have always emphasized the importance of honesty and transparency in this office. I am sharing this with you because you deserve to know when we fall short, not just when things go right. I promise you that we are taking this seriously. We will strengthen our processes and continue pushing toward the standard our community expects and deserves. As long as I serve as your county Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters, I will continue to operate with transparency and remain accountable to you.”
About Humboldt County Elections Office
The Humboldt County Office of Elections is committed to ensuring all eligible residents have an opportunity to exercise their right to vote, conducting elections in a fair, accurate and efficient manner, providing reliable information and the best possible service to voters, districts, candidates and other interested parties. For more information, visit HumboldtGov.org/Elections.
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Oops doesn’t begin to cover this.
Juan to many mistakes.
He is up for reelection, will ballot boxes again get lost?
Balderdash. Humans make mistakes. No stopping them. Trust comes from acknowledging them in public and acting to keeping the sam ones happening again. Although new one will replace them.. So unless you can give any information that this was deliberate, stop with the spreading of distrust. At least people now get a confirmation their ballot was counted and can act if they see it wasn’t.
So it was a Juanderful mistake?
No. Just co-juan-cidental.
How many votes in this election total? I’m sure these mattered.
I couldn’t find an absolute total, but there were 11,570,337 votes cast in the Prop 50 decision.
These ballots represent just 0.005% of all ballots cast in the state.
Considering that Prop 50 won by 3,336,341, and that Humboldt’s for/against ratio almost perfectly matched the state result, it’s fair to say that this error didn’t change the result one iota.
https://apps.npr.org/2025-election-results/california.html?section=I
It is still very frustrating that it happened, though.
I’m sure Cervantes is frustrated too. And the employee who over looked it embarassed. And actions have been taken to see it is not a mistake to be repeated.
Too many mistakes? I count 1 mistake by a staff member and Juan took responsibility!
Bonta will be all over this………..Oh wait…..
Bonta prosecutes crimes.
Are you suggesting this was a criminal act?
And do you have any evidence to support your claim?
If so, then you should share it with hi office.
If not, then why make such a comment?
I think the Humboldt County Office of Elections should put themselves in a drop box. That mistake could have been very costly for a candidate running for election and lost by two votes. Oops my ass!
Could have, but didn’t; no one and nothing lost by two votes. Anyway, they’ll be counted just as Mr. Cervantes said.
But it sure could have korina.
“Under Elections Code §17302, ballots from the November 4, 2025 Statewide Special Election must be destroyed six months after the election was certified.”
-Press release from the Humboldt County Elections Office-
__________________________________
That was three days ago…
Get ‘er done…
Correction…
Now I see that the six month deadline begins upon certification, not upon final count…
That gives them another 4-5 weeks from now, or so…
I regret the error…
While I appreciate Cervantes’ statement and new protocol, he is right that the responsibility rests with him, as should the repercussions — a failure that should result in resignation as soon as a successor can be identified by the Supervisors.
Sheesh. For a person routinely supporting actual illegal immigrants by demanding they have a hearing, this is blithely dismissive of due process.
But this is the second attack on Cervantes by Progressive commenters. Clark I can understand but has he offended Progessives somehow?
Maybe because some of us take voting seriously?
This isn’t a small mistake and ultimately the responsibility falls on Cervantes. I believe all officials, whether elected or appointed, should be held accountable for their actions and their failures without regard to partisanship.
Then you will 1) either have no one to vote for because everyone makes mistakes or 2) mistakes will deliberately be buried because, despite how small, you will have made the consequences so dire.
It’s not the concern that is being questioned, it’s the extreme remedy you demand. Beside it is a small mistake made by an employee who was very unlikely to get fired because of it. There is no suggestion it was the recorder’s behavior that created the mistake. It was a defect of procedure with no intent of malfeasance behind it.
Losing your elected position isn’t a dire result, it should be a normal consequence of significant mistakes that are under your purview. You are right that there is a risk of people burying mistakes to avoid consequences and I have little doubt that it already occurs.
But if we are ever to maintain trust in elected officials, there has to be clear and direct consequences for failures under their control. Not simply a “my bad” and keep on keeping on.
Don’t get me wrong, I applaud Cervantes coming out with the statement and owning up to it. But I see little value in just making a statement, there needs to be skin in the game, so to speak, for elected officials.
I guess I am simply more forgiving of something that doesn’t involve dishonesty and over something by nature complex. That and I’ve seen much, much, much worse be given a pass over partisanship.
What are you sniffing?
I was an election worker last November, and I can assure you Mr. Cervantes and the entire department take their jobs very seriously.
If we fire every responsible adult who makes an error, only cheaters will be in charge.
I am not suggesting we fire everyone who makes a mistake. But when the central responsibility of your elected position is the integrity of the voting process and the mistake of someone under your supervision creates a break in that integrity by not counting ~2.5% of the vote then there should be some significant repercussions.
If someone has a proposal for a significant repercussion aside from resignation, let’s hear it.
In your perfect world, yes.
Exactly, Not hard to do a double check of drop boxes to ensure all ballots are counted. Something voters depend on when dropping off their ballots in a secure box!
ONE MISTAKE and you want him strung up? He took responsibility, unlike MOST politicians that get caught and deny deny deny until it’s too late to admit they were LYING and then resign in humiliation! Juan is NOT that kind of guy! I can only guess that YOU have never been responsible for a hard working staff and one of them made a mistake and YOU took responsibility for their mistake?!? Somehow I doubt that…. He who lives in as glass house should not throw the first stone!
to trust the process? Never did never will.
Notice they dont say the location of the box. And of course they know it wont change any tally. Or will it?
Sheer numbers says it won’t.
Are we talking about the local election? Because it would count big time, with so few that vote locally. Either way I expect my vote to be counted, period!
As it should be. There is no question about that. But it was a special election without local issues. It didn’t change the result.
We’ll find out once the ballots have been counted.
Looks like we will be doing a write in on the option for Clerk, Juan.
I’m sure that there won’t be enough votes for any write in candidate to have Mr. Cervantes worried.
I agree. He’s running unopposed. It’s way too late in the game to expect enough matching write-in votes to defeat him. It’s convenient for him that this didn’t come to light sooner.
Here is some relevant information that hopefully someone will find helpful…
Proposition 50
VOTE CENTER:
YES – 2,312 – 3.24%
NO – 2,032 – 46.76%
VOTE BY MAIL:
YES – 11,915 – 63%
NO – 6,998 – 37%
TOTAL YES – 14,229
TOTAL NO _ 9,030
UNCOUNTED UNCOLLECTED ELIGIBLE BALLOTS- 596
Continued…
TOTAL YES – 14,229 – 61.18%
TOTAL NO – 9,030 – 38.82%
TOTAL VOTES – 23,259 – 100.00%
Oh, Wait…!!!
UNCOUNTED UNCOLLECTED ELIGIBLE BALLOTS – 596 – 2.56%
Yep.
Good catch…
MIssed a “5” in 53%…
Vote counts were correct, though…
Again, why are the ratios so different between vote center and vote by mail…???
That just doesn’t add up or make any sense at all…
Hmmm, I wonder when the last time was that Humboldt County Election Department actually properly purged it’s ineligible and/or deceased voters from it’s voter rolls…
That seems like it would be a very good question for an investigative journalist to ask them…
I’ll bet it’s been a very, very, long time…
I’d wager it has been at least two decades, or more, since Humboldt County CA has properly purged it’s voter roles of ineligible and/or deceased voters from it’s voter rolls…
Thanks for providing such helpful, relevant, information, melanopsin…
Crucial, even…
😉
Supposition and speculation, that’ll get to the bottom of things! It’s practically as good as evidence! <– sarcasm
Damn, melanopsin…
Right, again…!!!
You may have missed your calling as a proofreader…
Bravo…!!!
LOL..Good thing he doesn’t work in the Clerk’s office.
Still sore about that 70% thing…???
This is why people should not bother voting…
Let’s hear it for voter ID…!!!
Nothing to see here folks, nothing at all…!!!
Nothing amiss with our election process, nothing at all…
A mistake was made, it’s already being corrected, and Mr. Cervantes owned up to it promptly. Where’s the problem?
One glaring problem that likely remains is that ineligible and/or deceased voters almost certainly have not been purged from the Humboldt County voter rolls in more than two decades, at least…!!!
Can you or anyone else confirm or deny this…???
Do you have evidence that ineligible and/or deceased people have been voting?
Best to preemptively eliminate even the possibility of it, don’t you think…???
Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…
Just think of all the wasted postage that would be saved…
And why not just simply identify when exactly the last ineligible voter purge took place, just for reference’s sake, voter confidence, and peace of mind…???
I take it you have no idea, when it last happened, but I have a very good idea that it must not have happened for decades, at least…
Prove me wrong, please…
I’ve been trying to find the answer, but, alas, to no avail…
Be a good sport and give it your best shot, will you…???
You still have provided any evidence of an actual problem.
Absentee voting has been going on for over 200 years.
If there was an actual statistically-significant problem with it,
don’t you think we would have seen some evidence of it by now?
Freudian slip…???
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/34000-dead-people-found-voter-rolls-prompts-expert-slam-dems-resisting-commonsense-cleanup
‘34,000 dead people found on voter rolls prompts expert to slam Dems for resisting ‘commonsense’ cleanup’
“State board identified deceased individuals after submitting over 7.3M voter records to the federal SAVE database”
“North Carolina’s discovery of 34,000 dead people on its voter rolls has sparked renewed calls for voter roll cleanup measures, including increased pressure on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act.
After a state election official said the number of dead people found on North Carolina’s voter rolls was “higher than we anticipated,” Republican Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina called for immediate action to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, commonly known as the SAVE America Act.
“North Carolina confirms 34,000 deceased individuals on our voter rolls,” he wrote in an X post. “This isn’t a mistake—it’s a failure. Election integrity is non-negotiable. Fix it now. Pass the SAVE America Act!”
This discovery has also prompted questions about how many other states have deceased voters still on their rolls. Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project Action, said he is especially concerned about blue states he believes have been refusing “common sense” measures to clean up voter rolls.”
https://www.reformcalifornia.org/news/audit-reveals-evidence-of-voter-fraud-in-californias-2022-election
‘Audit Reveals Evidence of Voter Fraud in
California’s 2022 Election’
June 7, 2023
“Audit Reveals Evidence of Voter Fraud in California’s 2022 Election
Image Credit:Canva
California Receives Failing Grade on Non-Partisan Election Integrity Scorecard After Audit Finds Evidence of Voter Fraud, Inaccurate Voter Lists, Inadequate Signature Reviews, and Voter Suppression
A bombshell report released by the non-partisan Transparency Foundation gives California a failing grade on election integrity and declares “from its failure to maintain accurate voter registration lists to its refusal to verify the identity and eligibility of voters, California by far has the worst election practices in the nation.”
Investigators who compiled the report not only interviewed state and county election officials but also conducted an independent audit over 18 months of California’s election practices, voter registration lists, ballot signature reviews, and discarded ballots.
“The findings of this election integrity audit are quite damning and they completely refute the false narrative being spun by California politicians and media outlets that the state has no problems with how it conducts elections,” says Carl DeMaio with the Transparency Foundation.
“The problems are so bad and the evidence presented is so alarming that we believe there’s a clear case that California is repeatedly violating existing election laws and immediate reforms need to be implemented before the 2024 election,” DeMaio warns.
Audit Detects Voter Fraud
The Transparency Foundation’s audit was able to pinpoint substantial evidence of voter fraud occurring in California. The audit examined mail-in ballots that were rejected by county election officials because of mismatched signatures and remained “uncured” at the end of the election.
The audit found 56% of ballot signatures rejected as mismatched remained “uncured” or unclaimed by voters that supposedly cast them – despite repeated attempts by county officials to get these voters to confirm their identity and their attempt to vote in the election.
Even worse, of the 388 individuals with rejected and uncured ballots that were located by investigators and submitted to interviews, the audit uncovered a 14.17% likely fraud rate where the voter denied ever attempting to vote – and some individuals claimed to not even live in California.
Audit Reveals Inadequate Signature Verification
The audit revealed a massive disparity in signature rejection rates across California counties – with flawed signature review regulations imposed by the California Secretary of State to blame.
For example, in both the 2022 Primary and General Elections, Sacramento County rejected a significantly lower percentage of signatures (.24% in the Primary and .23% in the General) than San Joaquin County (2.18% in the Primary and 2.10% in the General.)
Sacramento County was also wildly outside the statewide average of rejected signatures of .70% in the Primary and 1.01% in the General. Put another way, Sacramento County’s ballot rejection rate was 438% below the statewide average.
Not only do these disparities raise the concern that some counties are not doing an adequate job of signature reviews, but the extreme nature of the disparities offer the basis to challenge California’s ballot signature review regulations on due process and equal protection grounds.
Inaccurate Voter Lists
Investigators say both the interviews with county election officials and the audit showed that California has failed to maintain even a reasonably accurate voter registration list. The report cites policies imposed by California politicians that make it operationally impossible to maintain accurate voter registration lists.
The investigation identified more than 6.6 million people since 2010 that moved out of California to another state. Unfortunately, the report notes the VoteCal data system fails to provide county election officials with the data they need to remove someone from the voter rolls when they move out-of-state.
The result? There are millions of inactive voters still on California’s voter rolls – many who are still receiving mail ballots at their old address. Los Angeles County admitted to having more than 1 million inactive voters – and the Transparency Foundation’s statewide audit reflects at least 1.18 million inactive voters still on the state’s voter rolls.
The audit also found evidence of 81,421 potential duplicate or triplicate voter registrations for the same individuals in the state voter registration list.
Reinforcing the audit findings, a 2020 survey by Reform California showed nearly one-in-ten California households have received “erroneous” ballots for someone who does not live there, for a dead person, or a duplicate/triplicate ballot for the same person.
Election Interference and Voter Suppression Concerns
Investigators documented numerous instances at the state and local levels where politicians intentionally misled voters by placing false and biased titles on ballot measures. The report also cites millions in taxpayer funds that have been inappropriately used to manipulate election outcomes by boosting turnout in specific voting blocks, to promote ballot measures, and to fund lobbyist groups to manipulate the drawing of redistricting maps to benefit the ruling political party and incumbent politicians.
Investigators also raise concerns regarding voter suppression, citing a recent move by California politicians to deliberately eliminate polling locations on Election Day. In 2022 one county saw a reduction of 87% in its polling locations on Election Day.
Investigators say a case could be made that this move could be successfully challenged in court on voter suppression grounds – pointing to polling that shows that conservative voters prefer to vote on election day, while liberal voters prefer to vote by mail.
California Voters Lack Confidence in the State’s Voting System
The report cites polls showing California voters do not have trust and confidence in the state’s elections and want immediate improvements in election integrity. The Berkeley IGS poll in November 2022 shows sixty percent of all California voters surveyed said that people voting or casting ballots illegally was a threat, with 39% of them saying it was a major threat.
Failing Score on 9-of-10 Criteria
The Transparency Foundation gives California failing grades on all but one of the election integrity criteria applied during the audit.
Public Trust and Confidence: FAIL
Accurate Maintenance of Voter Lists: FAIL
Verifying Identity of Voters: FAIL
Confirmation of Eligibility/Citizenship: FAIL
Accessibility of Voting: FAIL
Security of Election Systems: FAIL
Interference in Elections: FAIL
Unbiased and Accurate Ballot Titles: FAIL
Individual Ballot Tracking and Curing:
PASS
Post-Election Auditing: FAIL
“Election integrity should not be a partisan issue, but a collective commitment to ensuring that all voters have trust and confidence in the process and the outcome – and that’s clearly not happening in California,” concludes DeMaio.
“We hope that this report and the findings of this audit serve as a call to action to finally force politicians and their friends in the media to be honest about California’s election deficiencies and commit to reforming these practices before 2024,” DeMaio concludes.”
_________________________________________
If that doesn’t convince you, nothing will…
And yet, after those incredibly looooong posts,
you still couldn’t point to a single fraudulent vote being counted.
No one can get that info. Feds have been asking for it for a year at least.
Have you tried contacting the Office of Elections and asking? Their phone number is 445-7481.
Korina42,
Seems like the Office of Elections might already be pretty darn busy for a while sorting some other more pressing things out…
Destroying those ballots that they just found within the 6 month deadline has already expired, hasn’t it…???
You said…
“I was an election worker last November, and I can assure you Mr. Cervantes and the entire department take their jobs very seriously.”
I was hoping, since you are so familiar with them, that you could please also assure us that Mr. Cervantes and the entire department take maintenance of the voter rolls seriously as well, by determining when the last time the voter rolls were actually maintained, and giving us a heads up…
That would be a very convincing assurance…
But, I would completely understand if that isn’t possible…
You may think that it’s not even necessary, at all…
Thanks all the same…
Your reply actually spoke volumes in regards to the last time the voter rolls were probably maintained…
“It’s practically as good as evidence!” 😉
Sometime last century, I would think…
And that’s not just pure speculation…
It would be nice if it was corroborated, one way or another…
I could certainly be wrong, that’s for sure…
“The Supreme Court decided a case last summer that determined that the removal of inactive registrations is mandatory under the NVRA.”
I guess I just don’t understand why it’s so difficult to find any online record whatsoever whether or not that has happened recently in Humboldt County, CA, or even if it actually hasn’t, for a very long time, which is what I sort of gather…
Go figure…
Go ahead….
Be my guest…
I’ve got nothing to prove….
None of you proving it has been done, just proves that it hasn’t been done…
Prove me wrong, or you’ve just proved me right…
I was a temp worker, preparing and counting ballots, not a full-time employee.
Does this mean you’re not interested in asking the elections people?
That’s not the point…
It’s the law that voter rolls are maintained…
https://freebeacon.com/issues/california-l-a-to-purge-1-5-million-inactive-voter-registrations/
California to Purge 1.5 Million Inactive Voter Registrations
L.A. County has a registration rate of 112 percent of its citizen population
Did non-citizens vote last year? California officials still can’t say
The Supreme Court decided a case last summer that determined that the removal of inactive registrations is mandatory under the NVRA. Of
While Popper said he couldn’t cite a specific example of voter fraud stemming from the inactive lists in California, he argued that letting voter-registration rolls remain messy and full of inactive registrations opens the door to fraud and undermines confidence in the integrity of the voting system.”
Crickets…!!!
IMHO:
“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how. But what is extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how.”
Joseph Stalin 1923.
Assuming the quote is accurate, it’s not a matter of your opinion.
Machines count the votes; if it matters, I was one of many who helped prepare the ballots. We made sure the envelopes were signed, they were in the right district, and they had a ballot in them.Then we manually counted the ballots, always face down, bundled and initialed them so they could be re-counted by a different person, then counted them a second time. We were all in the same room, and never allowed to be alone with the ballots. The full-time election office staff take their job very seriously, as does Mr. Cervantes. HTH.
If you are so familiar with the staff there, would you be so kind to please determine when the last ineligible voter purge actually took place…???
That would be awesome…!!!
Thank you…
Why can’t we trust any part of the government? Thanks for no confidence. This will not go well. I’m so angry. I have no tolerance for incompetence.
Well, it must be nice to be PERFECT!!
Fall on your sword and resign. You had one job.
You want a competent, honorable man to leave his job because someone else made a mistake that he is correcting as we speak?
As someone who has apparently never made a mistake, maybe you can find it in your heart to forgive this one.
He had Juan job.
LOL…!!!
You’d be wrong about that. Actually being the Country Recorder involves many jobs from recording births and recording deeds and titles. “The Clerk-Recorder’s Office records or files various authorized documents and maps, collects transfer tax and other fees, and registers all births, deaths, and public marriages occurring within Humboldt County. Once recorded or filed, the documents and certificates are made available for examination within the office for interested parties. Exact copies are issued, upon payment of proper fees, by mail or in person in the office.
Clerk functions in the Clerk-Recorder’s Office include issuing marriage licenses, performing marriage ceremonies, and registering public and confidential marriages. The office also performs services related to the filing of fictitious business name statements, filing of notary bonds, registration of professional agents and similar services. For more information on responsibilities and functions, please visit Clerk Responsibilities.”
https://humboldtgov.org/1987/Clerk-Responsibilities
Shouldn’t heads roll from the top down?
Do they know if ballots were there on time?
Not sure how the drop box works.
It was locked and in custody.