Election officials appeared to question social media posts encouraging Democrats to delay voting.

SACRAMENTO – State election officials warned voters Tuesday to mail in their ballots early following changes at the US Postal Service that led to slow mail service across California.

He said. General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber said mail-in ballots must be mailed at least a week before the June 2 election.

Officials also cast doubt on social media posts urging Democrats to vote “late” and get one-on-one to ensure the Republican doesn’t win. The post is similar in wording and went viral on Facebook last week.

Bonta said the post, revealed by the Times at a news conference in Sacramento, could be “false information” or “disinformation” and “may be illegal.”

“Get your ballot in the mail at least a week in advance,” he said. “You want to make sure your vote is counted. And the misinformation that guides is the misinformation that we’re trying to combat.”

Voters using the postal service to mail their ballot within election week must go into the post office and request that their ballot be postmarked, or place their ballot in a secure ballot box, officials said.

The new guidelines follow major changes made to the United States Postal Service last year that have reduced the number of trips to pick up the mail in many rural areas of the country, including California.

A Times analysis of last year’s November special election found that there was a much higher number of mail-in ballots that arrived too late to be counted than in the 2024 election.

Rural counties saw a sharp increase in rejected ballots because they came in late, The Times found.

The postal service changes are nationwide, but they are especially important in California because the majority of people vote in the state using mail-in ballots.

Voters who send their ballot on election day, or two days before, may not see it counted because it will arrive late, Bonta told the media.

“You want your vote to be counted, I want your vote to be counted,” said Bonta. “If you vote early, you increase the chances that it will happen.”

Mail-in ballots are considered late if they are not marked on or before election day or if marked ballots do not arrive within seven days of the election.

Weber’s office also said it would look into a recent trend of social media posts encouraging California Democrats to “vote late” in the June 2 election.

The posts, which appeared on Facebook and Instagram, are identical in wording, and tell Democrats to stop voting early to ensure that two Republicans do not enter the top two spots, and gather around one Democrat.

California’s primary election system allows the two candidates who receive the most votes to advance to the November election, regardless of party.

With many Democrats filling the polls this year, some Democratic leaders have expressed concern that two Republicans – businessman Steve Hilton and Sheriff County Sheriff Chad Bianco – will take the top two spots because Democratic voters will be divided among the party’s top seven.

The appropriateness of social media posts is checked.

One Facebook post last week, for example, purported to be written by historian Heather Cox Richardson. The document warned voters not to vote until all the debates in California have concluded and the frontrunner is clear.

Richardson told the Times that he was not connected to the post. “I did not write it and we will never find out who did,” he said in an email. “I have never—and will not—take any position in the lower grades.”

California’s last election is being watched closely after the US Department of Justice said it would monitor polling places in other California counties following a request from California Republican Party officials.

However, the election continued without incident.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday sent a letter to election officials in 58 counties highlighting a recent law that calls for California votes to be counted within 13 days, instead of 30 days. Newsom thanked election workers for their work and called for a quick vote count.

“We have to admit that the longer the polls take,” Newsom wrote, “the more errors and deadly information will spread.”