Name: California GOP: Ballot box strategy is bigger than previously reported
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California GOP: Ballot box strategy is bigger than previously reported

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By | | Orange County RegisterThe California Republican party’s plan to that it initially labeled as “official ballot drop off boxes” — which state authorities say is illegal — is much more widespread than previously reported.While the Secretary of State’s office has said it is aware of such boxes appearing in Los Angeles, Orange and Fresno counties, state GOP spokesman Hector Barajas told the Register on Wednesday that they’ve distributed these boxes to “far more counties.” He declined to identify any locations or say how many total boxes they’ve purchased, only saying a report that pegged the number at “as many as 100” was too low. And the party confirmed it used an identical process to collect ballots during the primary election in March.The , giving officials with state and local Republican parties until Thursday to remove all unofficial ballot boxes. While Barajas said the controversy has prompted some groups hosting these boxes to ask for their removal, he said they’ve received more requests from others who want to get the drop boxes installed in their locations.The California Republican Party sent a response to state officials Wednesday afternoon saying they plan to continue using the system to collect ballots, which they insist is legal under California’s ballot collection laws. But Barajas said they have agreed to stop labeling the boxes as “official,” which he called a “poor choice of wording.”“We will eat crow on that,” he said.State and local authorities say it was more than just poor wording, though, with the Attorney General’s office, the Orange County District Attorney and other agencies investigating for potential felony violations of state election law that can carry up to four years in prison. And the Secretary of State told the Register that simply removing the “official” signs doesn’t satisfy the cease and desist notices.Barajas said the California Republican Party is ready defend its ballot collection process in court.The comments from Barajas came shortly after Democrats held a virtual press conference Wednesday morning in which they said they’re also ready to go to court over the unofficial drop boxes.“What the Republicans did here is they set up illegal drop boxes, they fraudulently labeled them as ‘official’ and now, once they’ve been caught, they’re trying to take a half step back,” said Mark Elias, attorney for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Even now, the chair of the party recognizes that that was wrong, and there needs to be consequences for that.”A party attorney attributed the “official ballot drop off box” signs to an “overzealous volunteer” and said they were only on a “handful” of boxes for a short time. Barajas said he couldn’t speak to the thinking of those involved with placing the “official” signs on boxes, so he couldn’t respond to questions about whether such labels were intended to deceive voters into thinking they were using a drop box installed and managed by county election officials.Rep. Harley Rouda of the 48th District, Rep. TJ Cox of the 21st District and Assemblywoman Christy Smith, who’s running the 25th District, said they believe the GOP strategy was to use the boxes in their districts, which are three of the most hotly contested House seats in California. The Democrats noted that, so far, the only verified appearances of these boxes have been in their three districts.That evidence includes a now-deleted photo that was posted to Twitter by a state GOP operative who’s working with Michele Steel’s campaign kneeling in front of multiple metal drop boxes in an unidentified campaign office. Steel’s campaign said it wasn’t her office in the photo.“I don’t condone any unofficial means of collecting ballots,” Steel said in a statement.There have been other photos of a more makeshift GOP drop box outside an administration building in Seal Beach, which is also in CA-48. There was another metal box outside a church in the Santa Clarita area, in CA-25. And the Fresno Republican Party posted and has since deleted a list of multiple unofficial drop box locations in CA-21, including the local party office and gun shops. It’s not clear how many of those boxes were installed.Republicans insist the boxes represent just a form of ballot harvesting, where anyone is allowed to collect someone’s ballot and turn it in for them. The process can be legal under a Democrat-backed law passed in 2016.There’s no way to track how many ballots come via collectors. While elections officials have said anecdotal evidence , the GOP insists the process helped Democrats get big wins in 2018. And they say GOP voters are less inclined to let their votes be harvested.“Republicans will basically tell you, ‘You’re not prying my ballot from my hand,’” Fred Whitaker, chair of the Republican Party of Orange County, told the Register after his party spent money on a failed ballot harvesting plan in 2018.Also, while there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, Barajas acknowledged that in the current election cycle voters aren’t likely to trust the reliability of the U.S. Postal Service and the entire election process. He didn’t dispute that such concerns are primarily being driven by President Donald Trump and other Republicans.To overcome those issues and collect as many Republican ballots as possible, Barajas said they came up with the idea of using boxes in areas with concentrated GOP voters. He said someone in each office is designated to collect the ballots at least every three days and deliver them to the local county registrar. He said that’s what they’ve done with all ballots collected through the boxes so far and what they’ll continue to do going forward.The GOP’s boxes don’t meet any of the legal criteria for ballot drop boxes in California, which are required to be made of particular materials, have narrows slots, be bolted down if not staffed and follow other security measures.Initial signage aside, Barajas said the GOP boxes aren’t intended to duplicate official drop boxes, but to serve as receptacles for harvested ballots. He said they’re not being placed outdoors in public areas for example. Of the three photos the Register has seen of such boxes, two were outside, though the GOP later said one was only outside in a widely circulated photo because it had just been delivered.While the GOP also said they weren’t advertising these boxes, the Register learned about them after seeing the GOP operative promote the boxes on his public Twitter page and the Fresno GOP promote them on their website.The GOP argued in its response to the state that Rouda operates a similar ballot collection operation. They included a document that describes Rouda’s “neighborhood ballot hub” program, where volunteers can sit outside their homes and collect ballots. The GOP points out that the document says a third party “organizer” would then take the ballots to the county, arguing that’s no different than their boxes sitting in businesses or churches and someone from the party later coming to collect them.Rouda’s campaign said the GOP cited a draft version of their plan, and that they changed their procedure — upon advice of their attorney — before implementation. Under the new rules, one volunteer collects and delivers the ballot.But the Rouda team also said their harvesting program has been low key. To date, they said, one couple has volunteered to host a hub, collecting two ballots from neighbors and turning them in to the county. They said they intend to keep operating that “hub” program, but will halt it if authorities ask them to do so.Caltech professor Mike Alvarez, who studies elections and voting, said the GOP approach of using unauthorized drop boxes “sounds problematic.”“Hopefully, they’ll learn their lesson here and do it in a way that’s consistent with California law,” Alvarez said. “If they want to engage in legal attempts to facilitate Republican and Democratic voter ballot return, I applaud that.”Republicans are using the controversy to push for tighter voting laws in California, noting that in-person ballot collectors aren’t required to follow rules on how they store ballots before turning them in, or how they identify themselves to voters.Elias, with the DCCC, said Republicans getting caught violating state law isn’t justification for creating new laws that could disenfranchise voters.Trump tweeted about the controversy Tuesday night, encouraging Republicans to keep fighting and telling Democrats, “See you in court.”While voters can track when their ballots have been counted, there’s no mechanism to check how their votes have been recorded to ensure nothing was changed along the way. That’s why the state cautions people to only use , the U.S. mail or polling places to cast their ballots. Elections officials also check for evidence of tampering with every mail-in ballot.Staff writer Alicia Robinson contributed to this report.We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.Get the latest news delivered daily!Follow UsMost PopularClose

By | | Orange County RegisterThe California Republican party’s plan to that it initially labeled as “official ballot drop off boxes” — which state authorities say is illegal — is much more widespread than previously reported.While the Secretary of State’s office has said it is aware of such boxes appearing in Los Angeles, Orange and Fresno counties, state GOP spokesman Hector Barajas told the Register on Wednesday that they’ve distributed these boxes to “far more counties.” He declined to identify any locations or say how many total boxes they’ve purchased, only saying a report that pegged...

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California GOP: Ballot box strategy is bigger than previously reported

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