California's mail-in ballot system sends millions of ballots to people who have moved out of state or to multiple addresses.
Posted by On with Kara Swisher, Checked
- Sources
- 4 contradict1 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 60%
On with Kara SwisherAug 10, 2026
The sources do not support 'millions of ballots' going to people who moved out of state or to multiple addresses.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
… Trump has been sowing a lot of doubt about the U.S. Election system, so I want to quickly hit a few of this and get some short answers from you. Is California's mail-in ballot system secure? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, look, um, the voter rolls and not, and so that part of it, I think, is the problem where you've got millions of ballots sent out to people who have moved out of state or moved multiple addresses, and so that definitely is a problem. I think the sort of general concept of it, the general, the operation of it, I think is secure. Yeah, I think it's the voter rolls part that's not. And you're pro mail-in ballots? No, not really. I mean, I think they're convenient. …
On with Kara Swisher · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. PolitiFact examined the 458,000-ballot claim about movers and deaths and found it overstated, because officials use death notices, change-of-address data and incarceration records to maintain rolls. Its scale is far below 'millions.'[1]
Contradicts. County election offices state they actively remove deceased and moved voters, update records daily, and use National Change of Address data, so mailed ballots to movers are mostly returned or caught.[3][4]
Contradicts. The 10.8 million figure from the 2022 midterm is ballots not cast, not ballots sent to people who moved. Reuters found no evidence those uncast ballots were used for fraud.[2]
Supports. Officials acknowledge that some erroneous ballots are mailed to movers because of lag in receiving notices, and a 2026 Spectator piece cites a Judicial Watch lawsuit alleging 873,000 roll entries are ineligible and some voters still get multiple ballots. These are allegations, not established counts.[1][3][5]
Context. PolitiFact's 2025 review notes that millions of California ballots go unreturned, but that does not prove fraud or that the ballots went to movers.[6]
Sources
6 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 2 primary, 2 not rated
- 1Answering Questions About Vote-By-Mail In Californiapolitifact.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts, supports
- 2Fact Check: 10.8 million 'unaccounted for' ballots in 2022 ...reuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts
- 3[PDF] The Facts about Mail and Absentee Ballots - El Dorado Countyeldoradocounty.ca.gov · primary source · cited for: contradicts, supports
- 4Maintaining an Accurate Voter List - OC Voteocvote.gov · primary source · cited for: contradicts
- 5The urgent case for fixing California's broken electionsspectator.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6PolitiFact | White House evidence doesn’t prove Trump ...api.politifact.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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