More than 900 students at Cal Poly and Cuesta College who thought they were signing up to vote in the June 5 primary election might not be allowed to do so because their voter registrations were not turned in on time, according to San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Julie Rodewald.

Rodewald has called for a state investigation of possible fraud, calling the snafu “a serious violation of the law and the voters’ trust.” Rodewald said she and the Secretary of State’s Office reviewed the situation all day Wednesday.

Rodewald told The Tribune that her office received more than 900 voter registrations that had been signed by the would-be voters before the May 21 deadline. However, they were turned in four days after the deadline.

The registrations were collected by people working on the Cal Poly and Cuesta campuses, she said.

Rodewald said signature gatherers signed the documents they turned in, and her office has the names of three or four of them, whom she is trying to track down.

Often these people are paid, and they might be from out of the area or even out of the state, Rodewald said.

“I don’t think it was necessarily deliberate, but it was definitely a violation of the law,” she said.

Rodewald said the disenfranchised voters can still register and vote, but they must go through a process that includes filling out paperwork.

For more information, would-be voters should call her office at 781-5228.

She added that voters who are eligible to vote will receive a notification card.

Anyone who has completed a registration card and has not received a notification from her office should call, she said.