The U.S. Postal Service and the Santa Clara County Voter Registration Office are investigating after a woman reported finding a bag full of valid and completed Santa Clara County ballots in a canyon in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The ballots were reportedly in a torn bag off Sugarloaf Road near Highway 17.
Lou and Janet Witkin, two people whose ballots were recovered, told NBC Bay Area that they dropped off their ballots at the Post Office on Paine Avenue in West San Jose last Saturday.
“How? How did it get from the mailbox to Santa Cruz?” said Janet Witkin. “I’m just disappointed that something could have happened.”
“I’m interested in facts,” Lou Witkin said. “I wanted to see it, but what was the situation? Was it dropped during transportation? What was the situation?”
I would also like to know Julie Niemann.
She told NBC Bay Area that she was riding her motorcycle to work when she found her torn bag and noticed her ballot.
Niemann said it felt like someone was taking care to make sure the bags with the ballots weren’t found.
“They were trying to make it look like people couldn’t find them,” she said. It goes pretty far and is very steep.”
The NBC Bay Area reported the findings to registrars and the Post Office late Friday afternoon, so the investigation is in its early stages.
The Registrar of Voters was reluctant to speculate on exactly what happened or how the ballot reportedly ended in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but NBC Bay Area provided I examined the photos closely.
Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey said, “In the photo it looks like there is a ballot mixed with non-election material.” You would think that it might be
The Registrar of Voters wanted to remind voters that they can go to their website and track their ballots to the right place.
The Santa Clara County Registrar’s Office told NBC Bay Area on Sunday that postal inspectors now have the ballots and are processing them as evidence.
County attorneys are working to get ballots back to elections offices so they can be counted.
The U.S. Postal Service and the Santa Clara County Voter Registration Office are investigating after a woman reported finding a bag full of valid and completed Santa Clara County ballots in a canyon in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Robert Handa reports.
