envelope

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Monday pushed back against a torrent of misinformation on social media sites claiming that mail-in ballots for the state’s Nov. 4 special election are purposefully designed to disclose how people voted.

Weber, the state’s top elections official, refuted claims by some Republicans and far-right partisans that holes on ballot envelopes allow election officials to see how Californians voted on Proposition 50, the ballot measure about redistricting that will be decided in a special election in a little over three weeks.

“The small holes on ballot envelopes are an accessibility feature to allow sight-impaired voters to orient themselves to where they are required to sign the envelope,” Weber said in a statement released Monday.

Weber said voters can insert ballots in return envelopes in a manner that doesn’t reveal how they voted, or could cast ballots at early voting stations that will open soon or in person on Nov. 4.

Weber’s decision to “set the record straight” was prompted by conspiracy theories exploding online alleging that mail ballots received by 23 million Californians in recent days are purposefully designed to reveal the votes of people who opposed the measure.

“If California voters vote ‘NO’ on Gavin Newscum’s redistricting plan, it will show their answer through a hole in the envelope,” Libs of TikTok posted on the social media platform X on Sunday, in a post that has 4.8 million views. “All Democrats do is cheat.”

GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz earlier retweeted a similar post that has been viewed more than 840,000 times, and Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator, called for the November special election to be suspended because of the alleged ballot irregularities.

The allegation about the ballots, which has been raised by Republicans during prior California elections, stems from the holes in mail ballot envelopes that were created to help visually impaired voters and allow election workers to make sure ballots have been removed from envelopes.

The special election was called for by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats in an effort to counter President Trump urging GOP-led states, notably Texas, to redraw their congressional districts before next year’s midterm election to boost GOP ranks in the House and buttress his ability to enact his agenda during his final two years in office.

California Democrats responded by proposing a rare mid-decade redrawing of California’s 52 congressional boundaries to increase Democratic representation in Congress. Congressional districts are typically drawn once a decade by an independent state commission created by voters in 2010.

Nearly 600,000 Californians have already returned mail ballots as of Monday evening, according to a ballot tracker created by Political Data, a voter data firm that is led by Democratic strategist Paul Mitchell, who drew the proposed congressional boundaries on the November ballot.

Republican leaders in California who oppose the ballot measure have expressed concern about the ballot conspiracy theories, fearing the claims may suppress Republicans and others from voting against Proposition 50.

“Please don’t panic people about something that is easily addressed by turning their ballot around,” Roxanne Hoge, the chair of the Los Angeles County Republican Party, posted on X. “We need every no vote and we need them now.”

Jessica Millan Patterson, the former chair of the state GOP who is leading one of the two main committees opposing Proposition 50, compared not voting early to sitting on the sidelines of a football game until the third quarter.

“I understand why voters would be concerned when they see holes in their envelopes … because your vote is your business. It’s the bedrock of our system, being able to [vote by] secret ballot,” she said in an interview. “That being said, the worst thing that you could do if you are unhappy with the way things are here in California is not vote, and so I will continue to promote early voting and voting by mail. It’s always been a core principle for me.”

California’s special election is almost here, and there are many ways to cast your ballot.

You can vote by mail, drop your ballot in a box, or show up at a polling place on election day if you forgot to register to vote.

Here’s information on how and where to cast your ballot, according to the state’s secretary of state.

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (UPI) — Just one day after President Lee Jae Myung’s cabinet approved the so-called “Yellow Envelope Law” on Tuesday, Hyundai Motors’ union launched its first partial strike in seven years, demanding the company notify labor in advance of new business ventures and overseas plant expansions, The Korea Economic Daily reported.

The law, passed by the National Assembly on Aug. 24 and set to take effect in early 2026, expands the scope of legal strikes to include management decisions such as mergers, restructuring and plant relocations.

It also limits corporate damage claims against unions. Analysts say the Hyundai union’s push reflects the law’s immediate influence on labor tactics.

Hyundai shut down assembly lines Wednesday in Ulsan, Jeonju and Asan for four hours, affecting an estimated 1,500 vehicles, Maeil Daily reported. GM Korea and HD Hyundai shipbuilding unions also staged partial walkouts to protest restructuring moves.

Observers warn the law, intended to protect workers from excessive corporate lawsuits, could embolden unions to intervene in management strategy, heightening labor unrest across Korea’s key industries, Maeil Business Newspaper reported.

Emmy season, we hardly knew ya!

Our last issue of the 2025 cycle is now out in the world, which means it’s time for this editor to switch from binge-watching TV at home to seeing movies in one of L.A.’s many frigid screening rooms. (Not a bad way to get through the dog days of summer, honestly.)

But before I return you to the newsletter’s regularly scheduled programming, here’s a look at some highlights from our Aug. 19 issue. Catch you in November when we open the first Envelope of Oscar season!

Digital cover story: Michelle Williams

(JSquared Photography / For the Times)

As heavy as its subject matter may be, “Dying for Sex” is the only series this season that actually left me doubled over in laughter.

My reaction stemmed from a moment early on in FX’s limited series where Molly, the kinky cancer patient at the core of the story, stumbles into a ransomware trap online. As played with slapstick brilliance by Michelle Williams, she leaps out of her laptop camera’s sight line as though it had metamorphosed into a dangerous animal — a scenario that only gets funnier when she’s joined on the floor by her friend and caretaker, Nikki (Jenny Slate).

As Williams, Emmy-nominated for lead actress in a limited series or TV movie, tells contributor Lorena O’Neil in this week’s digital cover story, those who suggest she’s only interested in serious fare are mistaken. “Dying” in particular required a sense of humor, Williams reveals: “My best friend recently lost another of her best friends to cancer, and she would tell me about the conversations they would have cheek to cheek lying in a hospital bed and how in those moments they found the thing to point at and laugh about, so [the series] felt very true to me.”

TV’s watercooler woman

Carrie Coon in “The White Lotus.”

(HBO)

Anytime I’ve seen complaints on social media about this summer’s “TV tumbleweeds,” I have thought to myself: “They must not be watching ‘The Gilded Age.’”

HBO’s delicious portrait of conniving old- and new-money New Yorkers in the late 19th century has ripened over three seasons into a reliably entertaining (if politically suspect) melodrama, thanks in no small part to Carrie Coon’s unabashedly ambitious society wife, Bertha Russell. Her cunning machinations, which this season included foisting a British duke on her reluctant daughter, have helped turn the series into a hit. Which also makes Coon responsible for not one but two watercooler successes in 2025 alone.

In her recent interview with contributor Gregory Ellwood, the (too modest) actor credits “White Lotus” co-stars Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb for her character’s final-episode monologue becoming a viral sensation this spring. (It also likely clinched her Emmy nomination for supporting actress in a drama.) But having followed Coon since Season 1, Episode 6, of “The Leftovers,” I’m comfortable saying she probably played some part in earning those big moments. You don’t capture buzz on two shows in a row by pure chance.

Words to live by

Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma in “Andor.”

(Lucasfilm Ltd.)

The stirring speech Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) delivers to the Galactic Senate in “Andor” isn’t just the culmination of the series’ long-gestating political plotline, the moment at which the senator throws in her lot once and for all with the Rebellion — at grave risk to her life.

It is also, thanks to the careful work of Emmy-nominated writer Dan Gilroy, a memorable piece of oration in its own right, drawing on real-life examples such as Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi to give a major turning point in the “Star Wars” universe genuine historical weight.

Gilroy joined me via Zoom recently to annotate the speech, from its unassuming opening line to its pointed use of the word “genocide.”

Read more from our Aug. 19 issue

If you’re feeling a little peckish as you open this week’s letter from the editor, our latest cover subject, “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder, has a recommendation for you: a breakfast burrito from Historic Filipinotown’s Doubting Thomas, home of her favorite in the city.

And while you wait for those eggs to cook up, let’s unwrap the foil on our Aug. 14 issue and chomp down on some highlights.

Cover story: Hannah Einbinder’s next act

(Bexx Francois / For The Times)

No, “Hacks” is not over. As of this writing, Season 5 is not even officially its last. But with a stand-up comedy special under her belt, Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” in the can and another hush-hush project already underway, it’s clear that the “Hacks” star isn’t planning to rest on the laurels of four Emmy nominations.

As former competitive cheerleader Einbinder tells Margy Rochlin in this week’s cover story, the prospect of leaving the “Hacks” nest is “emotional,” but the novelty of new challenges scratches its own itch: “I’m an adrenaline seeker,” she says. “I just have always liked the feeling of flying.”

Accompanying the story online is the debut of our new short-form series “In the First Place,” in which we ask cover subjects about life and career “firsts” — including, in Einbinder’s case, her first stop at the Americana, the first comedy album she listened to on repeat and more.

Inside the year’s most ambitious TV episode

(Matthew Lewis / Netflix)

As a result, perhaps, of my particular lens — former high-school teacher here — it wasn’t the destabilizing premiere, the wrenching finale, or Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty’s riveting two-hander that left me most awestruck when I watched Netflix’s “Adolescence” this spring.

It was only after the second episode, which weaves a murder investigation into a chaotic school day, that I found myself muttering under my breath, “I need a diagram of how they did that.”

Thanks to Emmy-nominated director of photography Matthew Lewis for obliging my curiosity (see above), and for speaking to contributor Bill Desowitz for his story about the extraordinary choreography required to piece a fire drill, a police chase and a drone shot into a single continuous shot, all with 350 young extras to corral.

For logistical stress, that puts even chaperoning prom to shame. And trust me, I’d know!

A real ‘Somebody’

(The Tyler Twins / For The Times)

“Somebody Somewhere’s” Jeff Hiller is having the time of his life — and not just in the photo above, snapped last month in the courtyard of his Manhattan apartment building.

As Tyler Coates writes in his profile of the first-time Emmy nominee, the surprise and delight of the announcement allows Hiller to keep basking in gratitude for the role of lovable queer Kansan Joel even though the series ended its three-season run last fall: “If I could play a role like that for six weeks once a year, for the rest of my life? I’d be more than fulfilled.”

It also allows him entree to HBO’s vaunted after-party, though my fingers are crossed that “Somebody Somewhere” doesn’t inspire any trays of “St. Louis sushi.”

Read more from our Aug. 14 issue

Drama

Billy Bob Thornton reflects on life in the tabloid spotlight with Angelina Jolie, Jason Isaacs discusses the ‘shocking’ scrutiny of ‘The White Lotus’ cast and more tales from the Envelope Drama Roundtable. READ HERE

Comedy

Nathan Lane recalls the Friars Club Roast from hell, Kate Hudson opens up about needing to fight for roles beyond the rom-com and more tales from The Envelope Comedy Roundtable. READ HERE

Limited Series / TV Movie

Elizabeth Banks explains why comedy is harder than drama, Brian Tyree Henry recalls being mistaken for his characters and more tales from our limited series / TV movie Roundtable. READ HERE

Writers

Writers from six of the year’s most entertaining and acclaimed TV series open up about runaway production, the binge model and tuning out (or into) social media. READ HERE