Box of 104 Mail-In Ballots Discovered on East Hollywood Sidewalk

A woman discovered a box of mail-in ballots on an East Hollywood sidewalk over the weekend while walking her dog, Fox11 reported Tuesday.

The Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office and the United States Postal Services (USPS) are investigating the incident after Christina Repaci found 104 unopened ballots.

Repaci called the whole encounter “stressful,” and told the outlet officials were extremely difficult to get in contact with:

It was so much stress and for just one person to get back to me. What do I do here? Now if it happens to someone else, they don’t know what to do. They’ll just put them in a dumpster or throw them in the trash. I just don’t think it should have been this hard to figure out what to do with legal ballots. This is a country of freedom, and our votes should matter and something like this should never happen.

She reportedly took the ballots home while she tried to figure out who to contact. She said she called several politicians and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, who told her “it wasn’t their problem” and “to contact the USPS.” Eventually, the L.A. County Registrar’s Office contacted her about retrieving the ballots, and Registrar Dean Logan “personally drove to pick up the ballots,” according to the report.

“He (Logan) picked them up. I made sure he was legit. He gave me a card, and took a photo of the box,” Repaci said.

The LA County Registrar’s Office released a statement, saying they believe “this was an incident of mail theft and not a directed attempt at disrupting the election.”

“Our office was notified over the weekend of a mail tray found containing approximately 104 unopened, outbound Vote by Mail ballots and additional mail pieces. Thanks to the cooperation of the person who found the ballots, we were able to quickly respond and coordinate the secure pickup of the ballots,” the statement reads in part. “We have reissued new ballots to the impacted voters. Early signs indicate that this was an incident of mail theft and not a directed attempt at disrupting the election. We are cooperating with the United States Postal Service and law enforcement to investigate.”

California’s primary elections are on June 7, 2022. Several high profile races are taking place, including the governor’s race, where current Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is running for reelection after surviving a recall election last year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is also running for reelection in District 11 after speculation she would retire.