Some vote-by-mail ballots are unreadable due to “human error” in in Tehama County of California, where voting closes on September 15 in a recall election to replace Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. Registrar of Voters, Jennifer Vise, blamed the company that Tehama County uses to print ballots for the print error that caused the tabulator to not be able to read the ballots. Under the California Elections Code section 15210, the county will now duplicate all affected state recall ballots onto readable ballots, Vise added. “The duplication process uses a four person bi-partisan team: one person reads the vote-by-mail ballot; one person marks the blank “duplicate” ballot; one person observes the marker; and one person observes the reader to ensure accuracy,” Vise said in a press release.

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The release did not mention the number of ballots were that were affected.

“I’ll know more in the next few days after we process all the ballots dropped off at polling locations and the ones received in the mail and the drop boxes throughout Tehama County today,” Vise told Record Searchlight.

If Democrat Gavin Newsom is replaced in the recall elections, it will be the second such instance in the US state’s history, and the third overall in the country.

The recall election was ordered after his opponents launched a campaign over his dinner with 11 friends and lobbyists without masks at an expensive restaurant last November at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are 46 candidates in fray, including radio and TV host Larry Elder, who has alleged fraud in voting process. “There might very well be shenanigans, as there were in the 2020 election,” Elder said, after launching a “Stop CA Fraud” online form on Monday. Former US President Donald Trump also issued a statement backing allegations that the California Recall Election were rigged.