What happens to election ballots with insufficient postage? With California’s 17 initiatives this election cycle, that mail-in ballot is thicker and heavier than it’s been in a long time. In fact, it’s so heavy that, in many counties, it takes more than one stamp to get the ballot back to the local elections office. But when voters don’t include enough postage on the ballot, that vote doesn’t go into limbo (or the trash): Under federal law, the local elections office must pick up the tab. “If a voter were to not place the correct amount of postage on the mail-in ballot, (the post office) will pass it onto us and we’ll pick up the short postage,” said Melissa Eickman, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters office.
