Republicans told to halt use of unofficial ballot boxes

GOP argue boxes are legal under ‘ballot harvesting’ laws; authorities and some experts disagree

The state issued cease and desist orders to the California Republican Party and local GOP officials in Orange, Los Angeles and Fresno counties over the use of unauthorized ballot drop boxes,

Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.

Republicans have until Thursday, to remove the drop boxes, which Padilla said are not legal. Otherwise, he said his office will “consider all of our legal options,” which could include both civil and criminal charges that can carry felony penalties of up to four years in prison.

Republicans are responding by concurrently slamming California’s permissive ballot collection laws and also claiming protection under that law. Officials with state and local GOP groups argue that Democrats are trying to suppress GOP votes by limiting so-called “ballot harvesting,” where people can turn in ballots for other registered voters, when the controversial law doesn’t work in their favor.

“Are we really supposed to believe it’s fine for paid Democrat operatives to collect ballots from strangers and throw them in a bag, but churches aren’t allowed to collect them for members of their congregation and put them in a box?” Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, said Monday.

But elections officials and legal experts say unauthorized drop boxes are not covered by ballot collection laws, with distinct differences between the two processes.

“The problem here is with voters unknowingly delivering their ballots to an unofficial drop box mislabeled and misrepresented as an official drop box, they do not know who it is they’re surrendering their ballot,” Padilla said during a Monday press conference. “The impression (voters) have with the words ‘official drop box’ is that they’re surrendering it to a county official. And that’s not the case.”

Reports about unauthorized ballot drop boxes at local political party offices, candidate headquarters, churches, gun shops and other locations came pouring into the Secretary of State’s office over the weekend, agency spokesman Sam Mahood told the Register on Sunday.