Riverside County Absentee Ballots Need Two Stamps
Riverside County voters have some hefty issues to decide in the November election -- so many that voters will need an extra stamp when mailing their absentee ballots because the envelopes will be so heavy, elections officials said.
The six ballot cards that voters will mark together weigh just over an ounce, requiring 63 cents postage to mail the ballot to the county registrar of voters.
A combination of 13 state measures, 15 local measures, and state and federal contests helped thicken the ballot.
At least two other California counties appear to have ballots requiring extra postage this year. Heavy ballots occur occasionally, said Nghia Nguyen, a spokeswoman for California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson.
But she said she was not aware of any ballots that had not been delivered to registrars because of insufficient postage.
Barbara Dunmore, the Riverside County registrar of voters, said officials discovered that their ballot would need extra postage after the Sacramento County registrar alerted registrars last week that its ballot weighed more than an ounce.
Riverside County distributed 200,000 absentee ballots to voters. Dunmore said her office was able to put inserts into 130,000 ballots warning voters to use 63 cents postage or two 39-cent stamps to mail their ballots back. The remaining 70,000 ballots had been sealed and mailed Tuesday before the note could be included, Dunmore said.
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