Woodland mail theft leads to replacement election ballots for some Yolo voters
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Yolo County elections officials said mail theft at four cluster boxes affected 135 voters.
- Authorities recovered 30 damaged ballots, and the Elections Office is issuing replacements.
- The Sheriff’s Office was looking for two mail theft suspects spotted in a U‑Haul truck.
Yolo County elections officials were contacting more than 100 voters to see if they’ve received their mailed ballots for the November election after reported mail theft for homes in Woodland.
The mail theft occurred at four cluster box units (also referred to as CBUs) for 61 home addresses in Woodland, the Yolo County Elections Office announced Thursday afternoon in a news release.
The cluster boxes broken into affected 135 registered voters who receive mail at these addresses:
- 800 to 1120 Shiloh Court
- 237 to 268 Pearl Court/Way
- 236 to 261 Carlsbad Place
- 300 to 341 Pinnacles Drive
The U.S. Postal Office reported the mail theft to county elections officials. USPS officials said authorities later recovered stolen mail at another location, where it appeared the mail had been sorted through and exposed to water. The recovered mail included both general correspondence and election-related materials.
The Woodland Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating the mail theft.
Elections officials said 30 of the 135 election ballots mailed to active registered voters were recovered, but the ballots were too damaged to be re-mailed. The Elections Office is sending replacement ballots to those voters immediately.
For the remaining 105 voters potentially impacted by this mail theft, elections officials are directly contacting them to ask whether they have already received their ballot for the Nov. 4 California statewide special election.
“If a voter has not received their ballot or staff are unable to reach a voter, a replacement will be issued promptly,” elections officials said in the news release. “The return envelope for replacement ballots will have an identification number ending in ‘-2’ to indicate that the ballot inside is the voter’s reissued ballot. A letter explaining the situation will be included.”
Ballots may be returned by mail, at any official ballot drop box, at the Yolo County Elections Office or at any vote center. The voting locations are available on the Elections Office website.
Jesse Salinas, the county’s registrar of voters, said the county has strong safeguards to protect voters and ensure election integrity.
“Yolo County has well-established protocols to maintain the security of our elections,” Salinas said in the news release. “Each vote-by-mail ballot undergoes signature verification to confirm the voter’s identity, and our system ensures that only one ballot per voter is accepted and counted. These safeguards guarantee that only valid ballots from verified voters are counted.”
Officials urged voters in the neighborhoods affected by the mail theft who have not yet received their ballot to call the Yolo County Elections Office at 530-666-8133 or send an email to elections@yolocounty.gov.
Mail theft suspects
On Wednesday afternoon, the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office was seeking the public’s help after a U-Haul box truck with a semi-truck decal was seen last week in the north Woodland area. Sheriff’s officials said two unidentified suspects were caught on security camera video stealing mail from cluster mailboxes.
The mail theft suspects in the U-Haul truck were spotted at 12:21 a.m. Oct. 3 on Shiloh Court and again a few minutes later leaving south on nearby Palm Avenue, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Detectives searched the area but did not find the U-Haul truck.
Sheriff’s officials said the security camera video showed a partial view of the U-Haul truck, but its license plate or full ID number was not visible.
Investigators asked anyone with video footage, photos or any information related to this U-Haul truck or the mail theft suspects to call the sheriff’s Investigations Unit at 530-668-5248.
