California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Monday pushed back against a spate of misinformation on social media sites, arguing that mail-in ballots for the state's Nov. 4 special election are deliberately designed to reveal how people voted.
Weber, the state's chief elections official, rejected claims by some Republicans and far-right supporters that holes in ballot envelopes allow election officials to see how Californians voted on Proposition 50, the redistricting measure that will be decided in a special election in just over three weeks.
“The small holes on ballot envelopes are an accessibility feature to help visually impaired voters navigate where they need to sign the envelope,” Weber said in a statement released Monday.
Weber said voters can put their ballots in return envelopes in a way that won't reveal how they voted, or can vote at early voting sites that will open soon or in person on Nov. 4.
Weber's decision to “set the record straight” came as conspiracy theories grew online claiming that mail-in ballots received by 23 million Californians in recent days were deliberately designed to reveal the votes of people opposed to the measure.
“If California Voters Vote 'NO' on Gavin Newscum's Redistricting Plan, Their Answer Will Reveal Through a Hole in the Envelope,” TikTok libraries published on social media platform X on Sunday in a post that received 4.8 million views. “Everything the Democrats do is a lie.”
Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz previously retweeted a similar post it was viewed more than 840,000 times, and California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator, called for November special elections will be suspended due to alleged voting irregularities.
The ballot allegation made by Republicans in previous California elections involves holes in mailing ballot envelopes that were created to help voters with visual impairments and to allow election workers to verify that ballots were removed from the envelopes.
The special election was called by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats in an attempt to counter President Trump's call for GOP-led states, especially Texas, to redraw their congressional districts ahead of next year's midterm elections to boost the GOP's ratings in the House and bolster his ability to push through his agenda within the last two years of his tenure.
California Democrats responded by proposing a rare mid-decade redrawing of California's 52 borders to increase Democratic representation in Congress. Congressional districts are typically drawn once a decade by an independent state commission created by voters in 2010.
As of Monday evening, nearly 600,000 Californians had already returned mail-in ballots, according to a ballot tracking system created by Political Data, a voter data firm led by Democratic strategist Paul Mitchell, who drew the proposed congressional boundaries on the November ballot.
Republican leaders in California who oppose selective voting have raised concerns about voting conspiracy theories, fearing the claims could prevent Republicans and others from voting against Proposition 50.
“Please don't panic people about something that could easily be resolved by turning over their ballots,” said Roxanne Hoge, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Republican Party. published on X. “We need all the dissenting voices, and we need them now.”
Jessica Millan Patterson, a former state GOP chair who chairs one of the two main committees opposing Proposition 50, compared skipping early voting to sitting on the sidelines of a football game until the third quarter.
“I understand why voters would be concerned when they see holes in their envelopes… because your vote is your business. This is the basis of our system – opportunity [vote by] secret ballot,” she said in an interview. “That said, the worst thing you can do if you're unhappy with the way things are here in California is not vote, and that's why I will continue to promote early voting and voting by mail. This has always been the main principle for me.”
