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by Adam Robinson
Election workers in Humboldt County found almost 600 ballots that were never counted months after a November 2025 special election, Humboldt County officials said.
The ballots were discovered on Monday, May 4, inside a locked drop box. County officials said they should have been counted before the election results were finalized in December.
According to county officials, the ballots were safe and had not been tampered with because the box was locked and the envelopes were sealed. State officials also confirmed that counting the ballots would not change the outcome of the election.
Even so, county leaders said every vote matters and they are looking for legal ways to count them before the ballots must be destroyed under state law.
The problem happened because of miscommunication, county officials said. Workers reportedly thought the drop box had already been emptied when it had not. Humboldt County Clerk-Recorder Juan Pablo Cervantes said the mistake is his responsibility. “We ask voters to trust us, and in this case we fell short,” Cervantes said. “We are working to fix this and make sure every vote is counted.”
To prevent this from happening again, the county added a new step: workers must now double-check each drop box using a "lock out, tag out" system to make sure it is empty before results are finalized.
Below is the full statement from Humboldt County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes:
“On Monday night around 6 p.m. I was made aware that a ballot drop box from the November 2025 Special Election for Prop 50 was not fully emptied. As a result, 596 ballots were left uncounted. That outcome is unacceptable and runs counter to the core of what this office stands for.
While the mistake occurred after an election worker did not follow proper procedures, the responsibility for what happened ultimately sits with me. I did not have strong enough controls in place to prevent this, but we do now. We have taken corrective action and already updated our protocols. A new lock out, tag out procedure has been implemented for every ballot drop box to ensure each box is physically verified as empty and secured before election results are finalized.
We ask a lot of voters. We ask you to participate, to trust the process and to believe that your vote will be counted. 596 voters did exactly what we asked of them, and we fell short.
We will be pursuing all legal avenues to get your ballots counted.
My team and I take great care to ensure accurate elections, and we were incredibly disappointed to discover this error. This discovery highlights why strong systems, redundancy and clear accountability must be in place at every step in the election process. In this case, those safeguards were not sufficient. That responsibility is mine and I am deeply sorry.
I have always emphasized the importance of honesty and transparency in this office. I am sharing this with you because you deserve to know when we fall short, not just when things go right. I promise you that we are taking this seriously. We will strengthen our processes and continue pushing toward the standard our community expects and deserves. As long as I serve as your county Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters, I will continue to operate with transparency and remain accountable to you.”
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