Ballot harvesting under scrutiny in state election

SACRAMENTO >> For the first time, all of California’s more than 21 million active registered voters got a ballot in the mail that they can fill out in their own homes. While only you can complete your ballot, anyone can return it for you.

And that’s where things get complicated.

Campaigns and political parties have organized sophisticated efforts to collect ballots from likely supporters and return them to county election offices, a practice known as “ballot harvesting.”

Some states have banned this practice, but it’s legal in California and it’s generating lots of controversy this year.

State law says voters have four options to return their ballot. They can mail it, return it in person to an election center, put it in an official drop box operated by their county or give it to someone else to return it for them.

The law says people who return ballots for others must print on the ballot their name, state their relationship to the voter and sign it. And, they must return the ballot within three days of receiving it.

However, the ballots will still be counted even if the collector does not sign them or keeps them for longer than three days, as long as they are filled out correctly and returned by Election Day, Nov. 3 There is no limit on the number of ballots a harvester can return.

Yes. State law defines a vote- by-mail ballot drop box as “a secure receptacle established by a county or city and county elections official.” The secretary of state has rules about the boxes’ design, how they should be labeled and how often ballots should be retrieved. But county election officials decide how many boxes to have and where to put them.

The California Republican Party is setting up their own ballot drop boxes. Party leaders disclosed they have put them in three counties with closely contested U.S. House races: Orange, Fresno and Los Angeles.

But they say they are being used in additional counties as well but won’t identify them. Party spokesman Hector Barajas said several dozen boxes are in use and more soon could be set up.. Party officials would not say how many votes have been collected with the boxes.