Over 118,000 voters accidentally left off rolls in California's vote

LOS ANGELES－A total of 118,522 voters' names were left off the rolls in Los Angeles County in Tuesday's primary vote for the 2018 midterm election, the county's election authority confirmed.

"We apologize for the inconvenience and concern this has caused," County Clerk Dean C. Logan said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

"Voters should be assured their vote will be counted," Logan added.

The authority said the names were accidentally omitted from the rosters because of a printing error, but those voters were still able to cast provisional ballots, though they won't be verified right away.

Logan said that poll workers at those locations had been instructed to make sure voters whose names did not appear on the roster would be issued provisional ballots.

Since the process of verifying and counting massive provisional ballots could cost workers more time, the vote tally in local races, especially two battleground House seats－California's 25th and 39th Districts－could come days or even weeks after voting is concluded.

Gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, told supporters at his election night party that his campaign asked the Los Angeles County registrar to keep polls open longer.

Villaraigosa's staff complained to local media that some of his supporters were turned away by the poll workers and not offered provisional ballots.

"I'm calling on @LACountyRRCC to keep the polls open longer because of the unprecedented number of voters left off the voter rolls. You have the right to vote. If you were turned away, return to your polling place & exercise your right to vote by requesting a provisional ballot," Villaraigosa tweeted on Tuesday evening.

Eight states in the country, including California, held primary votes for the 2018 midterm election.

Since Democrats must wrest at least 23 seats from Republican hands to seize control of the House for the second half of Trump's first term, California has turned into a key battlefield for the two parties as there are seven Republican seats in the state won by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Under California's primary system, all candidates appear on a single primary ballot, with the top two vote-getters, regardless of the party line, advancing to the midterm election in November.

Xinhua