Ballots continued to reach within the mailboxes of deceased Californians forward of this 12 months’s main election, regardless of repeated efforts by relations to inform officers and supply proof of loss of life, The California Submit has discovered.
Los Angeles resident Steve Brown adopted each instruction election officers gave him after his spouse, Lisa Brown, died in 2021. Steve reported her loss of life, submitted paperwork and even despatched a replica of her loss of life certificates, he instructed The Submit.
But 5 years later, election mail nonetheless arrives in Lisa’s identify, at an deal with the couple left years in the past. The repeated mailings have left Brown indignant, exhausted and more and more skeptical of a system he says he has spent years attempting to right.
“It’s numerous work,” Brown instructed The Submit. “You do what they let you know to do, and the poll nonetheless comes.”
A evaluation by The Submit confirmed Lisa’s registration remained energetic within the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s voter database.
A 2025 evaluation of two million energetic California voter registrations by the Public Curiosity Authorized Basis recognized 94,516 registrants flagged as deceased by means of comparisons with the Social Safety Dying Index and obituary information.
The evaluation additionally discovered 57,725 potential duplicate voter registrations throughout state strains, 3,104 same-address duplicate registrations and seven,677 voter information containing placeholder or fictitious beginning dates.
“If they will’t get one thing this primary proper, it makes you surprise what else isn’t proper,” Brown instructed The Submit. The repeated mailings additionally reopen outdated wounds.
“It hurts,” Brown stated.
Pia Altavilla stated she continues receiving election ballots for each her late husband, who died unexpectedly two years in the past, and her father, Francesco Altavilla, who died 5 years in the past.
She questioned why voter information should not routinely up to date when somebody dies.
“It’s disappointing that voter rolls should not cross-checked with Social Safety,” Altavilla stated.
“From a widow standpoint, revisiting the poll is triggering,” she stated. “While you see one thing like this, it brings up feelings.”
Alex Reynolds stated she encountered the identical downside after her mom died on July 24, 2025.
The household filed her loss of life certificates instantly, Reynolds stated, making it all of the extra shocking when a poll arrived months later.
“It’s regarding,” Reynolds stated. “I began wanting into it immediately. We filed every thing we had been speculated to. I don’t have time to maintain following up on this.”
Reynold instructed The Submit she has been reaching out to others and looking out into this extra. And, just like the others, Reynolds stated the poll was additionally an emotional reminder of her loss.
“It’s heart-wrenching,” Reynolds stated. “I cry day by day about my mother’s stuff.”
Nico Ruderman, who beforehand led the recall marketing campaign in opposition to former Los Angeles Metropolis Councilman Mike Bonin on the Westsdie, stated the difficulty raises broader questions on voter roll upkeep no matter political affiliation.
“There are events who don’t like narrowing down the voter roll,” Ruderman instructed The Submit. “The larger the voter roll, the tougher it’s to get a poll initiative throughout,”
He stated that loss of life certificates ought to routinely set off voter registration updates and questioned why voter databases should not extra intently linked to federal loss of life information and interstate registration techniques.
“Dying certificates ought to go right into a database and finally take away folks from the voter rolls,” Ruderman stated.
After 5 years of receiving election mail addressed to his late spouse, Brown stated each new envelope leaves him questioning whether or not the system is working the best way voters are instructed it ought to.
“You begin questioning it,” Brown stated.
