Unofficial ballot boxes are legal and they’ll keep using them, California Republicans tell state officials

Unofficial ballot boxes are legal, California Republican leaders said Wednesday, saying they will continue to use them despite cease and desist orders from the California Attorney General and Secretary of State.

They told told reporters that any box marked “official” was an error made by volunteers and has been corrected. But the party said it will continue to collect vote-by-mail ballots that are voluntarily delivered to local party offices or headquarters.

“In this case, voters have decided, for themselves, that they trust the staff and volunteers at their local political Party headquarters, or their church, or a business that they patronize, to securely deliver their completed VBM ballot to the appropriate election official,” party officials said in a letter to Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Wednesday.

The incident highlights a longstanding rift between Republicans and Democrats over the practice of ballot collection, sometimes called ballot harvesting. Ballot collection allows a designated person to deliver a voter’s mail ballot for them, and Californians have been doing it for years. More recently, party or campaign volunteers have been allowed to go door-to-door and offer to return ballots on voters’ behalf.

California Republicans have decried the change supported by state Democrats, saying it opens the door to voter fraud and puts ballots in jeopardy. Now, they are using the same law to collect ballots of their own.

“We believe that temporarily holding VBM ballots in a locked box at a church or local Party headquarters is more secure than a Party volunteer or paid operative holding harvested ballots collected from voters at a senior center in the back seat of his or her car – though both are legal,” the party said in its letter to state leaders.

State Democratic leaders swiftly condemned the unofficial drop boxes, issuing a cease and desist letter to the state and local Republicans. Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Alex Padilla said they were “prepared to take action to enforce state law, should it become necessary.”

State law requires those who deliver another person’s ballot to sign the envelope and state their relationship to the voter. Therefore, Democrats say, unofficial drop boxes are not permitted, because the voter has not designated a specific person to deliver the ballot.

But the law also states that a ballot will not be rejected solely because the returner did not provide their information on the envelope. This provision, Republicans argue, allows ballots to be collected by private individuals or organizations en masse without identifying a specific returner.

“The California Republican Party opposes ballot harvesting and wishes you had enacted adequate ballot security provisions after the laws were changed,” the party wrote in a letter to Padilla Wednesday. “Its program of collecting (not soliciting) VBM ballots from voters who voluntarily choose to entrust their ballot to the Party volunteers, is more secure, by far, than the door-to-door solicitation we have seen from the Democrat Party.”

Republicans argue that Democrats have done a similar practice of collecting ballots through neighborhood “hubs.” The party provided state officials with materials that appear to be from Democratic Congressman Harley Rouda’s campaign. The materials outline a “Harley neighborhood ballot hub,” such as a porch or outside of someone’s home, where voters can drop off the ballots. Hubs would be staffed by volunteer ballot collectors.

Officials with both Becerra’s and Padilla’s offices said they have received the letter and are reviewing it.

Republicans say they will continue to collect mail ballots, keep them in a locked and secure box, and deliver them to elections officials within 72 hours. The party will also ensure the boxes are consistently monitored and they will not be kept outdoors or represented as “official” drop boxes.

The boxes, and instructions on their proper use, will be available to any person or organization that wants to collect ballots, the party said.

Democrats across the state, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have criticized the party and said the unofficial drop boxes must be removed. In a call with reporters on Wednesday, Marc Elias, legal counsel for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the party could face sanctions if they don’t comply with state orders.

“They are in serious legal jeopardy right now for the actions they’ve taken,” Elias said. “Having been formally warned by the state of California that what they’re doing is illegal, if they act in defiance of that, that they risk significant sanctions by the state of California.”

President Donald Trump also weighed in on the issue Tuesday night, tweeting, “Haven’t the Dems been doing this for years? See you in court. Fight hard Republicans!”

This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Unofficial ballot boxes are legal and they’ll keep using them, California Republicans tell state officials."