Vote-by-mail ballots that reached San Leandro homes this week appear to list the wrong City Council races, according to East Bay Insiders, which first reported the problem Thursday. Instead of showing each voter only the race for their own council district, the ballots list all four district contests on the November ballot.
Why it matters this year
This is the first election under San Leandro's new district system. Voters approved Measure F at a special election on June 2, which moved the council seats for Districts 1, 2, 3 and 5 from citywide voting to district voting. The city's candidate guide spells out the rule plainly: starting with the Nov. 3 election, registered voters choose only the councilmember for their own district, while everyone in the city still votes for mayor.
Under the old system, council candidates had to live in the district they wanted to represent, but every voter in the city picked all of them. The ballots that went out this week look like that old format, East Bay Insiders reported, with the mayor's race and all four council races on one ballot. That means a single voter could see up to three council contests they are not eligible to vote in.
Which races could be affected
Three of the four council races have only one candidate, according to the city's candidate list: Sbeydeh Viveros-Walton in District 1, James Aguilar in District 2 (a partial two-year term) and Xouhoa Bowen in District 5. The one contested seat is District 3, where Lee Thomas faces Joseph Trujillo. The mayor's race, between Juan González III and James Maes, is citywide and should appear on every ballot either way.
Thomas told East Bay Insiders he was "extremely disappointed" and said the mistake could affect his race. As of the report, it was not clear how the Alameda County Registrar of Voters planned to fix the error.
It has happened before
San Leandro saw a similar problem in 2022, when the registrar left the school board race for Trustee Area 2 off mail ballots. In that case the county mailed supplemental ballots to affected voters and told them to keep and return their original ballot as well, according to the registrar's correction notice at the time. East Bay Insiders noted that this year's error may be harder to fix, because the problem is extra races rather than a missing one, and it appears to affect ballots across the whole city.
Voters with questions can call the Alameda County Registrar of Voters at (510) 272-6933. Until the county says otherwise, the safest move is to hold on to your ballot and watch for official instructions before mailing it.