Investigations into election results and ballot-processing methods are taking place not only at state and national levels. They are also taking place locally.
The Riverside Election Integrity Team has conducted an audit of recent elections in Riverside County and has reported its findings to the County Board of Supervisors. REIT member Greg Langworthy, who provided an update to the Menifee City Council last week, also reported to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
According to the REIT audit, there were 33,888 more votes counted in the 2024 election than ballots that were cast in Riverside County. Langworthy and other REIT members are requesting an investigation to determine whether the ballot-counting machines are faulty or whether some ballots have illegally been put through the machine more than once.
“In every recent election, the machines are counting thousands more votes than ballots accounted for,” Langworthy said in an interview with Menifee 24/7. “This has got to be explained. Why has the Board of Supervisors certified the election results? Because they were not given the records until afterward. Right now, it’s just a rubber stamp. The Proposition 50 results were off by 45,000 votes.
“This needs to be fixed before the June primary.”
County supervisors expressed concern at this week’s meeting and an ad hoc committee will meet to discuss this further. Langworthy is asking for a second opinion to confirm the audit results.
Langworthy is also concerned that thousands of ballots are being counted from voters who are deceased or ineligible to vote. He said the audit discovered more than 210,000 registered voters who appear to be ineligible to vote.
“We need a plan for cleaning up the voter rolls,” he said.
Langworthy gave an example of election misconduct his group suspects and is trying to investigate.
“These ballots for ineligible or deceased voters … they are mailed out,” he said. “When they are not connected to a live or eligible voter, what happens? You can go to an apartment house with a group mailbox and you see ballots just left stacked on top of the box. Then they are picked up by someone else.
“Also, the problem with mail-in ballots is verifying whether that signature is really from that voter. If ballots go to a neighborhood and someone collects ballots, they can just put a squiggle on it. We’ve watched ballots come in and go through three signature checks before they are determined to be illegal. Turning in a fraudulent ballot is a felony, but there are never consequences.”
A process called “ballot harvesting” is also a problem, Langworthy said. It is legal in California for candidates and/or their campaign workers to go door to door, asking voters to verify their signature on questionable ballots that were rejected. Candidates then turn the ballots into the registrar for the voter. But there are concerns that candidates who learn that someone voted for their opponent then throws away the ballot rather than turning it in.
“It’s a very insecure system,” Langworthy said. “We have been having ongoing dialogue with the supervisors and they are listening to us. The ad hoc election committee meets in March.”
