Millions of California residents are receiving mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election, including Redondo Beach resident Tom Thompson and his parents.
The only problem is that Thompson’s parents have been dead for more than a decade.
“I am the son, and I’m getting these officials ballots for people who passed away many years ago,” Thompson said. “Why is this happening?”
So Thompson took to social media in hopes of spurring an investigation.
I am the son of John and Gertrude Thompson. Both passed away over ten years ago and got ballots for the upcoming election. I gave Richard Grenell permission to post these pictures and ask for an investigation as to why they were mailed ballots for the 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/HcsIzvPk7k
— Tom Thompson (@tthompson90277) October 8, 2020
To his surprise, thousands of other people commented on the tweet saying they also received official ballots for deceased family members.
“I think it’s wrong,” Thompson said. “I think, number one, it’s a waste of money, it’s postage and everything else that the registrar had to use, and it’s just gotta stop.”
He said he was worried about voter fraud and that people might misuse the ballots.
“We just felt that there’s gotta be a system in place that would catch that and so it wouldn’t go out,” Thompson said. “If we’re getting it, many other people are getting it, and what do you do with it? Do you trust that no one’s going to use it unfairly or fraudulently?”
It’s the potential for fraud that Thompson said makes him concerned about the results of the election, similar to that concern of President Trump over the mass use of mail-in voting.
California is having mail-in voter problems. In Fresno County, at least 7 ballots have gone out to people who've already passed away. And a man in Nebraska says he got his ballot for where he's registered now, plus one from where he used to live in California. pic.twitter.com/a3tZ8kS2nh
— Marie Edinger KMPH (@MarieEdinger) October 10, 2020
“It makes me unsure of the process of the election, and even considering the responses I got back on Twitter, tens of thousands of people are having the same problem: people that are deceased and still getting a ballot,” he said.