More than 2,300 late vote-by-mail ballots were rejected in the June election, continuing a concerning trend for Santa Barbara County.

Noozhawk reported in April that the county has seen a large increase in late and rejected ballots since the U.S. Postal Service changed its mail pickup policies.

Communities such as Santa Barbara, farther from major processing centers, do not have guaranteed same-day mail pickup from USPS.

That means ballots mailed on Election Day, or even the day before, may not be postmarked in time to be counted.

A ballot had to have a postmark of June 2 or earlier, and arrive by June 9, to ensure it would be counted for the June election.

With that in mind, elections officials encouraged people to mail early — a week ahead of time — or drop off the ballot at a polling place, drop box or elections office.

Chuck Santry is one of those who was notified that his June election ballot was rejected. 

He filled out his ballot and dropped it off at the curbside mailbox of the Santa Barbara Main Post Office downtown on Election Day, as he has in many elections past, he told Noozhawk. 

“I was looking at it, and it says it picks up mail at 1 o’clock, 3 o’clock, some other time. I wanted to make sure they were actually picking up mail,” he said.

Satisfied, he put the ballot in that blue mailbox and drove away.  

“Then I get a note from County Elections that my ballot wasn’t counted because it was postmarked after the election date,” he said. “I finally talked to someone at the Elections Office, and they said, ‘Oh, it’s the post office. They don’t guarantee mail dropped off the same day will be postmarked that day.’ And I’m going, really? OK, that’s kind of a new thing.”

The vast majority of local voters — more than 85% — use vote-by-mail ballots rather than going to polling places.

The number of late and rejected vote-by-mail ballots was 2,647 in November 2025, up from 179 the year before.

That’s a 14-fold increase for Santa Barbara County, compared with a four-fold increase statewide in late ballots. 

For the recent election, “we have a little more than 2,300 ballots that arrived too late,” Deputy Registrar of Voters Martin Cobos said. 

The rate of rejected ballots is about as high as the November election, the first election after the USPS policy changes took effect: 20 per 1,000 ballots, or about 2% of ballots. 

Many voters like Santry didn’t get the message about mailing ballots early, or returning them another way, because of the changes. 

“Judging by the number of ballots received ‘too late’ in this selection, it still seems to be a challenge,” Cobos told Noozhawk. “We do plan to increase our messaging for November 2026 with an emphasis on mailing ballots early.” 

Santry said the Elections Office should have done a better job informing voters to mail ballots early, knowing the USPS may not postmark them on Election Day.

“The Elections Office, in my opinion, they failed,” he said. “A bunch of people are in the same boat as me. For years I’ve been turning in my ballot on Election Day or the day before with no problems.”

Knowing what he knows now, he will probably mail his ballot earlier or use a drop box for future elections, he said. 

“I drove right by the county drop-off box on Anacapa (Street),” he mused. He kept driving to the post office because he couldn’t park right by the drop box. 

Cobos said about 41,000 June ballots were returned via USPS, and about 60,000 ballots were returned via drop boxes around the county.

“More and more voters are using the ballot drop boxes than ever; it’s to the point now that a majority of voters are choosing this method to return ballots,” he said. “Ballot drop boxes are convenient, secure and one of the quickest ways for ballots to get to the Elections Office.” 

The list of ballot drop box locations is here. That list should remain the same for the November election.

Read more election coverage from Noozhawk.