Right-wing YouTuber baselessly claims voter fraud at California UPS store

"Here in California at this UPS store in San Diego, over 30 people are registered to vote, as this is their primary residence," Shirley says as he stands outside the store holding a stack of papers in the video, which he shared to X, YouTube and Instagram on February 21, 2026.

In captions attached to each of the posts, Shirley repeated the claim: "It is illegal to list a PO Box as your domicile address (which appears on the voter roll). You can receive a ballot at a PO Box, but it cannot be the domicile address -- which over 30 of them were, errors and suspected fraudulent activity is everywhere in California voter rolls."

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Screenshot from Instagram taken February 24, 2026

In the video, Shirley promotes and is wearing a shirt advertising Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based prediction market. The website then amplified his claims on Instagram. 

The clip rocketed across social media ahead of US President Donald Trump's 2026 State of the Union address, which Shirley -- who rose to right-wing stardom over a dubious video in which he accused Somali-owned daycare facilities in Minnesota of fraud -- attended as a guest.

Republican US Senator Mike Lee and Donald Trump Jr, the president's eldest son, further amplified the clip to their followers.

"It never ends. Imagine if the mainstream media actually spent even a few minutes looking into any of these things???" Trump Jr wrote.

A few minutes of research, however, revealed no evidence of any fraudulent voter registrations at the UPS in question.

The store in Shirley's video is located at 4142 Adams Avenue in San Diego (archived here).

Online searches and Google Street View imagery confirm the store is part of a multi-use development that also includes Kensington Commons, an apartment complex housing 34 units (archived here and here). A residential balcony is visible directly above the storefront (archived here).

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Screenshot from Google Street View taken February 23, 2026

Antonia Hutzell, a spokesperson for the San Diego County registrar of voters, told AFP: "Our records indicate that there are no registered voters at The UPS Store located at 4142 Adams Ave., Ste. 103, San Diego, CA 92116."

"The building at this address is a multi-use structure, containing both commercial businesses and residential units above," she said in a February 23 email.

The California secretary of state's office also said in a February 24 email that "none of the voters registered to vote at the building referenced in the social media posts are registered to vote with the UPS Store's Suite 103 number."

"They are registered to vote in one of the apartments at that building," the office said. "The Kensington Commons website indicates there are 34 apartments in that building, and the voters registered to vote at that address all have suite numbers for apartments at that building."

A UPS spokesperson confirmed the store's location but did not address Shirley's allegations.

AFP also reached out to Shirley for comment, but no response was immediately forthcoming.

Voter registration laws

UPS, including the San Diego location Shirley spotlighted, does allow customers to purchase private mailboxes (archived here). But these are distinct from Post Office, or PO, boxes, which are operated by the US Postal Service.

In any event, California election law requires applicants to provide their place of residence when registering to vote, and the secretary of state's office told AFP that PO boxes and private UPS mailboxes do not count (archived here).

"Neither private UPS mailboxes nor PO Boxes are considered a place of residence," the office said.

That prohibition is made clear on California's voter registration applications, where residents are asked to list a home address -- or, for people without a street address, a specific description of where they live, including cross streets (archived here and here). The application form specifies that this is "not a P.O. Box or business address," and that applicants can only put PO boxes or business addresses as separate mailing addresses to receive election mail.

"Voters must register to vote using their residential address where they actually live," said Hutzell, from the county's registrar of voters. "This information is necessary to assign the appropriate precinct and ensure they receive the correct ballot."

A 2025 state guide for completing voter registration cards similarly stipulates that a residential address must be a "place in which the applicant's habitation is fixed and where the intention is to stay ... P.O. Boxes & business addresses are NOT valid here" (archived here).

Voters in other states have reportedly faced charges for registering using UPS mailboxes.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about voter registrations in California and US politics here.