Despite state election officials sending a cease and desist order, the California Republican Party said it will not remove its unofficial ballot boxes.
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According to CNN, unofficial ballot boxes have been found in the counties of Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura. California Republican Party spokesman Hector Barajas sent a statement to CNN indicating its โballot harvesting program will continue.โ
In a letter to Alex Padilla, Californiaโs secretary of state, attorneys for the GOP argued the boxes arenโt illegal because theyโre indoors (even though the one found at a Castaic church was outside), arenโt labeled official (even though the one found at the Castaic church was labeled official), and they have people monitoring them (the one found at the Castaic church was looking pretty lonely to me in the picture, just saying.)
โThe California Republican Party did not promote, or authorize the promotion of, the secure boxes as โofficial mail drop boxes,โโ the letter states. โWhen we learned that a sign using the word โofficialโ was used in some locations on Saturday, October, 10, 2020, we corrected that error immediately and within hours.โ
Lol OK, b.
A spokesperson for Padilla said that the secretaryโs office is reviewing the GOP letter and is in the process of deciding next steps. Padilla and Californiaโs Attorney General Xavier Becerra, both Democrats, have called the unofficial ballot boxes illegal, according to PBS News. They both fear that the unofficial boxes are a form of voter suppression because they will sow confusion with voters.
It should be noted that ballot harvesting, itself, isnโt illegal in California. The difference here is that most ballot harvesting operations typically involve going door-to-door to pick up individual ballots, not advertising you have an โofficial ballot box.โ
My bad, โunofficial.โ
Republicans have long gone after mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, saying the practices innately lead to fraud without, you know, providing any evidence that they do. President Trump has been one of the most vocal critics of mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes. He has frequently implied that this yearโs election will be fraudulent because the pandemic has resulted in an election that will be conducted largely by mail.
Despite saying the practice leads to voter fraud, Trump has encouraged the California GOP to continue its ballot harvesting operation. โYou mean only Democrats are allowed to do this? But havenโt the Dems been doing this for years? See you in court. Fight hard Republicans!โ Trump tweeted Tuesday night.
Quick note, itโs legal for any party to ballot harvest in California, as long as itโs done in person. The question of legality mainly arises from the usage of unofficial ballot boxes that arenโt subject to the same rules and regulations as official ones.
โWe have been opposed to ballot harvesting and Republicans are still opposed to ballot harvesting, but we have a choice. We can either whine and complain about the election results later or we can get smart and figure out the rules and figure out the chess board they laid out before us and play the game that theyโre doing,โ Barajas told KABC. He added that they may even expand their practice because itโs been going so well.
The California GOP neglected to tell officials if there are more unofficial ballot boxes than the four that have been found, and where they may be located within the state.
California took the step of sending mail-in ballots to every active registered voter to encourage remote voting, and Padillaโs office has said that 1.5 million vote-by-mail ballots have already been returned. At this point in the election cycle in 2016, only 150,000 early ballots had been returned in the state.
So, to my California peeps, should you have any concerns about where to find an official ballot box, you can contact your local registrarโs office for a list of locations. Also, the Secretary of Stateโs website provides a comprehensive tool that allows you to find official polling locations in your area.
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