Error leaves 118,000 voters in California off rosters in Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder said that the names of 118,522 voters were omitted from the roster that poll workers use to check in voters at their polling place.

In an interview, a spokesman with the county registrar said the office did not know what parts of the county were affected, but some 1,530 precincts of the 4,357 Los Angeles County voting locations were impacted.

"We are working to see what precincts are affected," said Michael Sanchez, a spokesman with Los Angeles Registrar, who explained that the office had discovered a random printing error on the roster. "We don't know yet. We are still in the thick of it."

Voters whose names did not appear on the roster were supposed to be given provisional ballots, but clearly that did not happen in some cases. The department received calls and complaints throughout the afternoon, several hours before polls closed.

While all registered voters can still cast a provisional ballot before the polls close at 8 p.m. PT, the irregularity could potentially cause major headaches in counting votes in the governor's race and the highly competitive contest in the 39th Congressional District, which is represented by retiring Congressman Ed Royce.

Royce's district includes the southeast corner of Los Angeles County, as well as portions of Orange County and the southwest corner of San Bernardino County.

Several Democratic strategists noted that many Hispanic voters live in that area of the 39th District, which could impact the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's chosen candidate Gil Cisneros.

The 39th District is one of seven California districts currently held by Republicans that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. It is one of the top targets in the country as Democrats try to capture the 23 seats they need to win control of the House of Representatives.

It is also one of the districts where Democrats were concerned that they would be locked out by California's "top two" primary system. In California's "jungle primary," the "top two" vote getters advance to the November contest regardless of party.

Cisneros has been locked in a heated battle with Democrat Andy Thorburn for the number two spot in that district. Young Kim, a longtime aide to Royce who was endorsed by him, is widely seen as the favorite to capture the top spot in tonight's contest.