Republicans plan to continue to use ballot drop boxes as state issues subpoenas
California officials have issued subpoenas for more information on the state Republican Party’s use of unofficial ballot drop boxes.
In a call with reporters on Friday, Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Republicans have committed to a number of significant concessions in their ballot collection activities, and the state has asked for more information from the party. The investigation is ongoing, Becerra said, and the state will take legal action if they find credible evidence of wrongdoing.
They declined to specify whether use of ballot-collection boxes is illegal if other criteria are met.
“We can’t hold someone’s hand in everything they do. We think the law is pretty straightforward,” Becerra said. “Anyone who wishes to participate in a process where you collect the vote: please make sure you’re doing it appropriately.”
Stanislaus County election officials said earlier this week that at least five churches in Modesto and Turlock were using unofficial drop boxes to collect ballots. The Registrar of Voters said in a news release the use of unauthorized, non-official ballot drop boxes is prohibited by state law.
The county elections office has 16 indoor drop boxes and two outdoor boxes for collecting ballots for the vote-by-mail presidential election Nov. 3. The official boxes bear the Stanislaus County logo.
Among the churches using unofficial drop boxes were New Life Christian Center in Turlock and Big Valley Grace Community Church and One Church, both of Modesto.
Ted Howze’s congressional campaign has provided ballot boxes to some local churches. Republican Ted Howze is challenging Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock, in the 10th Congressional District.
Following reports earlier this week of unofficial drop boxes appearing in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange Counties, Padilla and Becerra issued cease-and-desist letters to the CA GOP and local affiliates to stop the use of the boxes.
According to the letter, some boxes were erroneously marked as “official” and misled voters to think they were using secure drop boxes. The California Republican Party later said it did not authorize or promote the collection boxes as “official,” and after learning that such a label was used on some boxes, the party corrected the error.
But Republicans said they have not made any concessions to the state, and will continue to use the drop boxes. Republicans say the boxes have always been attended and are secure. They said volunteers deliver the ballots to elections officials within 72 hours. The party will accept ballots delivered to a local party office or headquarters and will make boxes, and instructions on its proper use, available to any person or organization desiring to collect ballots.
Donna Linder, registrar of voters in Stanislaus County, said she sent information on election laws to the local churches earlier this week and to “my understanding the churches in our area were following California code.” Linder said Friday she had not received any direction from the Secretary of State.
“The Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters office continues to ensure that all ballot submissions are consistent with election law,” Linder said in a formal statement Friday.
When asked how this changes the way the collection boxes will be used locally, Tim Rosales, campaign manager for Howze, said he could not speak for the California GOP. “I’m not sure this really changes anything per se,” Rosales said in a text message. “I see it more as a walk back by the Secretary of State.”
A church leader for Big Valley Grace said Wednesday a locked box was placed at outdoor services to collect completed mail ballots from members. Under an arrangement, Howze campaign staff collect the ballots from the box twice a week and deliver them to the county elections office.
When not used at services, the unofficial ballot box is kept in a church office where staff are present, the church leader said.
He said he believed the first ballots taken to County Elections were placed in an official drop box outside the County Elections office on I Street. He said he didn’t know if Howze staff members signed the envelopes as the designated returners as specified in law.
A person who answered the phone at One Church said they had no comment when asked if changes are being made to the ballot collection effort.
Ballot collection, allowing voters to certify someone to deliver their mail ballot for them, is legal in California. It can be used between individuals, and in recent elections, campaign volunteers have used it to go door to door and collect ballots for voters who want help returning them.
The law clearly states that an individual who returns a ballot on behalf of the voter must sign the envelope and state their relationship to the voter, Padilla said. A provision in the law says a ballot will not be rejected just because a returner doesn’t sign the envelope, but it’s meant to protect the voter, not exempt the returner from responsibility, according to state officials.
“What’s problematic here is that, when the chain of custody is lost, there is nobody to guarantee that all the ballots were indeed delivered to the county and delivered on a timely basis,” Padilla said.
While the California Republican Party has said it will continue to operate drop boxes in a secure and supervised manner without the word “official,” it has not said that it will instruct returners to sign the envelopes. If the law requires officials to count ballots even in the absence of a returner signature, then it’s not a requirement of returners, the party has argued.
Hector Barajas, spokesman for the California Republican Party, said the state officials didn’t bother to learn the facts before making accusations, and said the party has not conceded to anything.
“The California Republican Party made no concession to the Attorney General or the Secretary of State,” he said. “In fact, in two phone calls with nine Attorney General lawyers, they never requested the California Republican Party to do anything except provide information about our program and to turn over records, including names of voters, which we have declined to do.”
“This is a thuggish voter intimidation and vote suppression tactic by our Democratic Attorney General and Secretary of State,” Barajas said.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 4:25 PM.
