The California Republican Party has come under scrutiny after photos of its members posing with and encouraging people to cast their vote in unofficial ballot drop-off boxes circulated on social media.
The state’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla said he’s received several reports about unauthorized ballot boxes in Fresno, Los Angeles, and Orange counties, emphasizing that putting up unapproved drop-off boxes is illegal, according to the Orange County Register.
“Operating unofficial ballot drop boxes — especially those misrepresented as official drop boxes — is not just misleading to voters, it’s a violation of state law,” Padilla said, adding that a felony conviction could carry a two- to four-year prison sentence.
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.
Though several unauthorized ballot boxes tied back to state and county Republican parties have raised some eyebrows, the party defended the drop-off bins, citing that the process, referred to as ballot harvesting, was made legal under a 2016 law that allows state voters to designate a person to return their ballot for them.
“If Democrats are so concerned with ballot harvesting, they are the ones who wrote the legislation, voted for it, and Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law,” Hector Barajas, spokesman for the California Republican Party, told the Washington Examiner. “California Republicans would be happy to do away with ballot harvesting.”
In one social media post by the California Republican Party’s regional field director, Jordan Tygh, he is posing with a mail-in ballot next to a box labeled “official ballot drop off box.” The post also encouraged voters to message him to find convenient locations to drop off their own ballots.
Another unapproved box was found outside of a church in Los Angeles County, with the house of worship posting on social media that the box was “approved and brought by the GOP.” The church added that it didn’t have a key to the box and that it would be picked up by Republican Party officials.
A list of “secure” ballot collection locations was also shared by the Fresno County Republican Party, but none are considered official county drop box sites. The sites that party officials listed included its own headquarters, gun shops, and local businesses.
“Democrats only oppose ballot harvesting when it done by someone else,” Barajas said, adding that the anger about the ballot boxes is “overblown.”
The party also criticized Padilla’s investigation into the boxes, referring to it as a distraction from the political spending in the state budget.
“The Secretary of State’s actions is just a deflection from the mounting criticism for giving a non-budgeted, $35 million get-out-the-vote contract to a ‘Team Biden’ PR firm, which is also receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars to oppose Republican candidates in targeted California districts,” Barajas said.
The contract Barajas refers to is a voter outreach effort with a consulting firm with close ties to the Democratic Party, which was awarded $35 million by Padilla’s agency. California Republicans have called upon Gov. Gavin Newsom to cancel the contract.
The upcoming election is expected to invoke record high levels of mail-in ballotsdue to the coronavirus pandemic, which has made large gatherings and close physical contact a public health risk.
California Secretary of State spokesman Sam Mahood said that the state will continue to look into the source of the boxes.
