California County Discovers Hundreds Of Uncounted Ballots Months After Newsom-Backed Redistricting Vote

Nearly 600 unopened ballots were discovered in a Northern California county months after voters approved a controversial Democrat-backed redistricting measure tied to Gavin Newsom’s push to reshape congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The Humboldt County Office of Elections announced Wednesday that 596 sealed ballots from the Nov. 4 statewide special election had been found inside a locked ballot drop box that officials mistakenly believed had already been emptied before election certification.

County officials insisted the ballots had not been tampered with because the drop box remained locked and the ballots were still sealed when discovered Monday.

The election centered heavily around Proposition 50, a Democrat-backed measure championed by Newsom that temporarily allows California lawmakers to draw congressional maps for the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections instead of relying solely on the state’s independent redistricting commission.

Humboldt County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes admitted the county failed voters and said the mistake stemmed from an election worker not properly following ballot retrieval procedures.

“While the mistake occurred after an election worker did not follow proper procedures, the responsibility for what happened ultimately sits with me,” Cervantes said in a statement.

He added that the county has since implemented new “lock out, tag out” procedures requiring physical verification that every ballot drop box is empty before election results are finalized.

Officials stressed the ballots would not alter the outcome of Proposition 50 or any statewide races, but pledged to count every ballot anyway.

“I promise you that we are taking this seriously,” Cervantes said. “We will strengthen our processes and continue pushing toward the standard our community expects and deserves.”

Proposition 50 became one of California Democrats’ most aggressive election-year moves after Republican-led states began pursuing mid-decade redistricting changes of their own.

The measure effectively created a temporary exception to California’s traditional independent commission system, allowing legislature-drawn maps through 2030 as Democrats attempted to counter GOP-led redistricting efforts in states such as Texas and Florida.

The political stakes surrounding redistricting intensified further after the Supreme Court of the United States last week narrowed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in a Louisiana case, potentially opening the door for additional Republican-led map redraws nationwide.

Despite mounting pressure from progressive activists to pursue even more aggressive redistricting, California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks indicated Democrats are not currently planning another round of redraws before the midterms.

“We have yet to fully win the seats in the map that was drawn in 2025,” Hicks told the Los Angeles Times. “It seems a step too far to say we’re going to go back to the drawing board and redraw the map.”

Hicks also urged Democrats in other blue states to take similar action to counter Republican gains elsewhere.

“California cannot do it alone,” he said.