Ruling will force counties to revisit mail-in ballot procedures

A ruling made by a Superior judge in San Francisco County may force the state to ramp up its efforts to validate mailed-in ballots in future elections.

A Sonoma County resident and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last year against California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Sonoma County registrar of voters.

The legal challenge centered on State Election Code 3019, which allowed the Sonoma County registrar to nullify the vote due to the signature in ballot not matching the one on file.

Plaintiff Peter La Follette states in the suit that officials didn’t inform him about the rejection of his ballot and even told him they were not required to do so.

Judge Richard Ulmer, in his ruling, said the current law violates due process clauses as it “fails to provide for notice that a voter is being disenfranchised and/or opportunity for the voter to be heard.”

Ulmer also directed the state not to reject any ballot based on mismatching signatures without providing the voter with notice to remediate before results are certified and for the California secretary of state to inform county election officials of the ruling.

Imperial County Registrar Debbie Porter said Padilla reached out to the office on Wednesday to inform them the state will review the law and will communicate any decision or revision to the counties once they make a determination.

Porter said the practice in Imperial County has been to count mailed-in ballots when there is a resemblance between signatures.

Although her office makes the effort to contact the voter when there is a problem, Porter acknowledged that tends to be early in the voting period. This is less true in the more hectic days immediately prior and after an election, she said.

The ACLU said 33,000 to 45,000 ballots were rejected statewide in the November 2016 election.

Although the state argued the changes will be hard to implement for the next election, the judge stated on his mandate that elections take 30 days to certify, which provides a window of opportunity to validate the ballots in question. The state primary election takes place on June 5.