There's been a lot of attention to an alleged plot by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to steal the state's election on Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Act, by using holes in mail ballot return envelopes to supposedly determine whether the envelope contains a "no" vote and then trashing that ballot.
While there's no doubt that there are extreme election integrity issues in the Golden State in general and major issues with the way the state Attorney General and Secretary of State have carried out their duties for this election, the "hole in the ballot" controversy isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
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Before we get into why that is, here's Los Angeles County GOP Chairwoman Roxanne Hoge with some background - and to share a fix.
C'mon people! If you're worried about your vote showing through the hole, fold it the other way.
— Roxanne Hoge (@RoxanneHoge) October 11, 2025
Vote NO on 50! pic.twitter.com/UKXuEy9g12
More background:
The holes have been on ballot return envelopes in some California counties (not all) since 2008 and have two purposes. One is to allow election workers and poll watchers to easily see which envelopes still have ballots in them during processing. "They also serve as a tactile guide for visually-impaired voters to locate the signature area," according to the Sacramento County Department of Voter Registration and Elections.
Whether the hole reveals if the envelope contains a yes or no vote on Proposition 50 depends upon how the voter places the ballot in the envelope. As attorney Mark Meuser, who specializes in election law for the Dhillon Law Group, explained, there are eight ways to insert your ballot into the envelope; only 1 (or possibly 2, depending on the county) may reveal a no vote:
PSA: There's talk about a hole in some ballot return envelopes that might reveal a "NO" vote on Prop 50. Not all counties have this hole, and even if your county has such a hole, it doesn't always show your vote. Of the 8 ways to insert your ballot, only 1 or 2 may reveal it. Be responsible: if your county's envelope has a hole, double-check to ensure your vote remains private.
PSA: There's talk about a hole in some ballot return envelopes that might reveal a "NO" vote on Prop 50. Not all counties have this hole, and even if your county has such a hole, it doesn't always show your vote. Of the 8 ways to insert your ballot, only 1 or 2 may reveal it. Be… pic.twitter.com/19vDK6bm84
— Mark Meuser (@MarkMeuser) October 10, 2025
As Meuser alludes to, if a voter is concerned about ballot secrecy, it would seem that they'd look at the envelope before sealing it to ensure that their vote is, in fact, secret. An additional fix suggested by the Placer County Elections Office is to "stick a piece of paper between the ballot and the side of the envelope with the visible hole," or, obviously, "vote in person on Election Day at the voter’s assigned polling place" for counties without in-person early voting.
Will envelopes with 'turned around' ballots simply be tossed?
The argument being made against simply turning the ballot around before placing it into the envelope is that "turning your ballot around just signals to the people who want to steal the election to throw your vote out." While I'm in no way attempting to insinuate or argue that California's elections are secure, this argument is simplistic and laughable, and worse, it has the effect of suppressing the conservative vote.
First, who's going to do the throwing out? People return their VBM ballots in numerous ways - some through USPS, some at drop boxes, and some take them to early voting locations and physically put them in a ballot collection bag (which is what I do). Are the mail carriers the ones who'd be charged with throwing them out? Or whoever collects from the drop boxes? Or is it the election officials, once they're going through signature verification and ballot processing?
Anything is possible, but the theory that USPS workers, who aren't known for their ambition and drive, would en masse be taking the additional time to throw out only the envelopes where ballots were turned around or a visible "no" vote could be seen is quite a stretch. They'd be more likely to just throw out entire bags of ballots than go to additional work.
People collecting ballots from drop boxes are the most likely culprits in this scenario, but depending on the volume of ballots being collected, also not likely in large enough numbers to affect the outcome. Election observers are present during the processing of vote-by-mail ballot envelopes and the ballots themselves, and this process is also open to the public. Both observers and the public” must be given 48 hours’ notice, including the date, time, and place, when vote-by-mail ballots will be processed.
Processing vote-by-mail ballots entails:
“[O]pening vote by mail ballot return envelopes, removing ballots, duplicating any damaged ballots, and preparing the ballots to be machine read, or machine reading them, including processing write-in votes so that they can be tallied by the machine.”
Certain people are always allowed to observe the processing and counting proceedings, including a member of the county grand jury, one member of the county’s Democratic central committee, and one member of the county’s Republican central committee. “Other interested organizations” are also permitted to observe, but the law doesn’t list specific organizations.
The law provides that observers:
[S]hall be allowed sufficiently close access to enable them to observe the vote by mail ballot return envelopes and the signatures thereon and challenge whether those individuals handling vote by mail ballots are following established procedures, including all of the following:
(1) Verifying signatures and addresses on the vote by mail ballot return envelopes by comparing them to voter registration information.
(2) Duplicating accurately damaged or defective ballots.
(3) Securing vote by mail ballots to prevent tampering with them before they are counted on election day.
Obviously, election workers could toss various envelopes before they get to the point where observers are involved. That's also not extremely likely since it would involve numerous people having knowledge, and would create a discrepancy between the number of ballots received at the county and the number of votes counted or lawfully disqualified. California voters are able to track their ballot through the BallotTrax site, which confirms to the voter before the envelope is processed that it has been received by the county - and the number of ballot returns is reported daily.
Second, a number of "yes" votes would assuredly be tossed if envelopes containing ballots that were "turned around" were tossed. With eight different ways to place your ballot into the envelope, it's statistically impossible that every single voter, whether they're voting yes or no, would put their ballot into the envelope the exact same way, absent any other influence. I would ask people who argue differently, how often have you dealt with the general public? Anyone who's ever worked in customer service or managed people or attempted to give their children instructions knows that people constantly find new and interesting ways to complete a task.
Best practices for ensuring your vote counts
If you are a California voter ready to vote against Gavin Newsom's $250 million+ Election Rigging Act, in my opinion, the best thing to do is to vote early and in-person if your county has that option. Next would be to drop the mail ballot off at your county elections office; all county elections offices offer the option of personally returning the ballot.
Otherwise, I'd choose a ballot drop box located somewhere with cameras, such as a fire station or City Hall. My last choices would be to wait until election day - weather, traffic, illness, or technical difficulties could conspire against you - or to put the ballot in a USPS drop box inside a post office (never, ever put it in the mailbox in front of your house). Then, use BallotTrax to track your ballot, and if it doesn't show up by election day, go and cast a provisional ballot.
We must battle for election integrity, without a doubt, and ensure that there are adequate numbers of poll watchers and mail ballot observers on November 4. But we also must make sure that we actually vote and, just as importantly, convince five or ten others (who’ll be voting No on 50, of course) to get out and vote.
Return your mail ballot to your county elections office as early as possible so that when those election night numbers are released, there is no doubt that Californians don't want their congressional districts gerrymandered any more than they already are.
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