California election officials to voters: Stop disinfecting your mail-in ballots

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Election officials in Sacramento County urged voters not to try to disinfect their mail-in ballots because doing so can invalidate the ballots, KCRA reported.

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“Voters do not have to worry about contracting COVID from their mail-in ballots,” Courtney Bailey-Kanelos, the registrar of voters in Sacramento County, told the news station.

She said as of Monday, officials have received 100 ballots damaged by disinfectants and alcohol sprays. At least one person microwaved their ballot to disinfect it, KCRA reported.

“We understand if, for the outgoing white envelope that you get that maybe the mail service carrier may have touched, you want to kind of hold that aside for 24 hours,” Bailey-Kanelos told the news station. “Everything inside the pink return envelope, the ballots themselves, they have been inserted by a machine weeks ago, so they are safe.”

Officials told KCRA that they are working to get new ballots to people who sent in damaged ones.

Cox Media Group