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WEST HAVEN, Davis County — A California mail-in ballot has traveled over 1,400 miles, including a stop in Utah, to be counted in next week’s election.
It was mailed from a home in South Lake Tahoe, California. Beverly Delos Reyes signed it last Thursday and it was supposed to go to the voter registrar's office in Placerville, California.
After she stuck the ballot in the mail, it was postmarked the same day in Reno, but somehow it ended up over 700 miles away at Leland Neil’s office in West Haven, Utah. “That’s what got me,” Neil said. “I was looking on the front and it says, ‘Placerville, California’ and I was like, 'How’d it get to Utah?' ”
It turns out the ballot had somehow traveled across parts of three states and ended up in the pile of mail delivered to his workplace two days ago.
“We get misprinted mail a lot of times, but not a ballot,” Neil said.
William Schultz, the Registrar of Voters for El Dorado County in California said his office has been very busy with people voting early and wondered how the ballot ended up in Utah, since it was clearly marked.
“We had no idea,” Schultz said.
A U.S. Postal Service spokesman told KSL the ballot had an incorrect barcode and zip code stamped on the bottom of the envelope, and the electronic sorting machines sent it to Utah.
In a statement, a spokesman said this was an isolated case, adding: "We have been in contact with the customers involved and the El Dorado, California, County Registrar of Voters Office and apologized for the error."
Neil handed the ballot back to the postal carrier at his office on Tuesday and it's now on the way back to California to be counted. Neil said he wanted to make sure the ballot arrived in time, especially this year.
“I was trying,” he said. “I was like 'Geez, this is civic duty. I’d better get this back in there so it can count, because this election is really close.' ”
Reyes declined an on-camera interview, but was glad to hear that her ballot was headed to where it was supposed to go, even though it took 1,400 miles.
