President Trump urged the California GOP to continue placing unofficial ballot boxes despite the threat of prosecution.
The president expressed his dismay on Twitter Tuesday night one day after top state officials sent the state party a cease-and-desist notice, demanding they remove the unofficial ballot drop boxes that have popped up across the state in recent days.
Trump, on social media, wrote, “You mean only Democrats are allowed to do this? But haven’t the Dems been doing this for years? See you in court. Fight hard Republicans!”
You mean only Democrats are allowed to do this? But haven’t the Dems been doing this for years? See you in court. Fight hard Republicans! https://t.co/vaToeGB2ze
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020
Only county elections officials are allowed to oversee ballot drop boxes, choosing the number, location, and hours of operation. County registrars make sure every box follows strict state guidelines for them to be secure, including making sure they can’t be tampered with by tracing the chain of custody of all ballots.
Despite backlash, the state GOP defended the drop-off bins, referring to this tactic as ballot harvesting, which was made legal under a 2016 law that allows state voters to designate a person to return their ballot for them. The state officials, however, charge that by misidentifying the drop boxes as “official,” it violates state law because governing ballot collection law requires that the person to whom a voter hands their ballot off to “provide their name, signature, and relationship to the voter.”
The state officials also argue that the method doesn’t “provide any of the safety and security guarantees” that are required under election law and state regulations.
“If Democrats are so concerned with ballot harvesting, they are the ones who wrote the legislation, voted for it, and Gov. Jerry Brown signed it into law,” Hector Barajas, spokesman for the California Republican Party, previously told the Washington Examiner. “California Republicans would be happy to do away with ballot harvesting.”
A number of other Republican officials in the state have rebuffed the controversy as well.
