GOP considers more disputed ballot boxes
SACRAMENTO (AP) — California’s Republican Party no longer will label its ballot drop boxes as “official” to avoid confusion with those used by county registrars, but may expand their use even as state officials say they’re illegal, a party official said Tuesday.
California GOP spokesman Hector Barajas said the party started using the boxes in three of the most hotly contested congressional districts and now may use them more widely.
“It gives voters another opportunity to be able to turn in their ballots if they choose to do so,” he said. “This is just another option.”
California’s top elections and law enforcement officials, both Democrats, on Monday said the boxes are illegal, threaten election security and must come down. Those behind the GOP effort could face criminal prosecution, Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.
California has sent every active registered voter a mail-in ballot for the Nov. 3 election and greatly reduced the number of polling places to limit crowds during the pandemic. President Donald Trump and other Republicans have raised questions about the security of mail-in voting, which has been used for many years but will be done at a record level around the country this election.
The California GOP drop boxes are a new version of “vote harvesting,” which is legal in California and allows party volunteers to collect multiple ballots and deliver them to election officials.
California’s election officials say anyone who delivers ballots for others must put their name on those ballots and sign them. But a 2018 state law bars ballots from being disqualified if they fail to include these signatures.
Republicans say that means their volunteers can collect ballots in boxes and turn them in without signing their names.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat, authored the law and disputed that notion. She said it calls for a voter to give their ballot to a person, “not to put it in an unofficial box sitting outside somewhere.”
As for the signature, she said: “I’m happy to rewrite the law so they will be punished for their behavior.”
The state GOP rolled out its boxes in conjunction with the start of early voting last week. Barajas wouldn’t divulge how many were deployed or specify locations, other than to say they were at party and candidates’ offices, churches and gun shops in three congressional districts — one in the Central Valley, another north of Los Angeles and a third in Orange County. All three districts saw Democrats defeat Republican incumbents in 2018.
Some of the party’s drop boxes were labeled as “official,” even though they are not authorized by county election officials. Barajas said those will be relabeled.