California GOP defends use of unofficial ballot boxes - Los Angeles Times

For years, Republicans across the country have decried the use of so-called “ballot harvesting,” arguing that laws that allow a third party to collect voters’ completed ballots serve as a breeding ground for election fraud.

In California, the state’s Republican Party has taken Gov.

Now, California’s GOP is defending its use of the very ballot collection law it once sued over.

In recent weeks, gray metal containers labeled as ballot drop boxes have been placed at various locations — including gun shops, shooting ranges, churches and Republican Party offices — in several California counties.

California Republic Party officials have acknowledged responsibility for the boxes and have rejected allegations of wrongdoing, in defiance of what the state’s top election official and attorney general say is an illegal practice.

Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Monday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Republican Party officials demanding that they immediately stop using the private ballot collection containers marked as “official” drop boxes.

California elections officials order GOP to immediately remove unofficial ballot boxes.

California elections officials order GOP to immediately remove unofficial ballot boxes.

California’s attorney general and secretary of state called such ballot drop boxes illegal and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Republican Party officials.

Republicans counter that they are applying a 2016 state law that allows a voter to designate any person to collect a completed ballot and return it to election officials, a polling place or vote center, or a secure vote-by-mail drop box.

At the center of the battle are questions of whether it is legal to collect ballots through third party boxes and also what constitutes an “official” ballot drop box.

California law says a mail voter may designate another person to return their ballot.

Becerra and Padilla, who has called the ballot boxes “fake” and misleading, have demanded that GOP officials provide by Thursday a list of all voters whose ballots have been collected using the boxes, to ensure that the documents were collected with permission.

“State law is absolutely clear: These unofficial, unauthorized ballot drop boxes violate state law,” Padilla said in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday.

Find voting centers and drop-off boxes in our interactive map.

Find voting centers and drop-off boxes in our interactive map.

The California Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment from The Times.

A party spokesman told the Associated Press that they would stop labeling their ballot boxes “official” to avoid confusion and said that they may expand their use.

Republican Party officials also have declined to provide state officials with a complete listing of the number of drop boxes and their locations.

The existence of the boxes was disclosed when a Newport Beach Republican official posted a photo of himself on Twitter on Thursday posing next to a metal delivery box, the size of an office filing cabinet, marked “official ballot drop off box.” The container was not, however, provided or overseen by Orange County elections officials, said Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley.

A list of locations sponsored by the Fresno County Republican Party on its website showed a dozen ballot drop-off locations not authorized by elections officials.

The state law in question, amended in 2016 and again in 2018, replaced a previous rule that limited ballot delivery to a family member or someone living in the same household, and explicitly prohibited collection by political parties and campaigns.

The law, experts say, explicitly states that any individual can return a ballot to an official designated drop box.

But they draw a distinction between a voter who has willingly given their ballot to another person for delivery and a voter who turned their ballot into a drop box they did not know was unofficial.

According to experts, the use of third-party ballot collection boxes is not illegal, but the false designation of an “official” drop-off box is because the boxes are not sanctioned by election officials.

The wording in the amendments doesn’t give the state GOP the legal standing to use unofficial boxes, said Gonzalez, a Democrat whose district encompasses southern San Diego County.

Your guide to the 2020 election in California.

Your guide to the 2020 election in California.

“I just think it’s unfortunate after crying foul for years about voter fraud, the Republican Party has taken it in their own hands and committed voter fraud,” Gonzalez added.

Raúl Macías, counsel at the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said that the GOP’s claim that “this is just like ballot collection assistance is ridiculous on its face.”.

“California ballot collection law allows voters to entrust a specific person to return ballots on their behalf,” he said.

“This entails political operatives defrauding voters into thinking they’re submitting ballots to election officials rather than to the GOP.”.

Some of the GOP ballot boxes, Macías added, are labeled as official.

“It sounds to me like the GOP officials are likely committing a felony by likely impersonating election officials.”.

A voter cannot “designate” someone to be a third party turning in their ballot if the voter is unaware that they dropped off their ballot at an unofficial box.

Macías, of the Brennan Center for Justice, said that it would be one thing for a voter to designate a gun store owner as a person to return a ballot on their behalf, rather than a box in front of the store

“Those include providing for their sturdy construction, the ability to withstand attempts at removing those drop boxes

Their slots are required to be narrow enough to prevent tampering, and ballots have to be collected regularly from those drop boxes by two election official employees.”

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Your guide to the 2020 election in California

Your guide to the 2020 election in California

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