“We are going to continue this program. If he wants to take us to court, then we’ll see him court,” said Hector Barajas, spokesman for the California Republican Party.
After California Secretary of State Alex Padilla sent a cease and desist letter to the California Republican Party regarding their illegal ballot drop boxes, the state GOP isn’t backing down and says they plan to expand the program.
The controversy started over the weekend when the secretary of state’s office and county registrar’s received reports of suspicious ballot drop boxes in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and Fresno counties. The state Republican Party says the boxes are legal because it’s ballot harvesting, which authorizes another person to take their ballot to a collection site, but the secretary of state says this doesn’t qualify as ballot harvesting because the collection boxes are unmanned.
State law defines a “vote by mail ballot drop box” as a “secure receptacle established by a county or city and county elections official.” The Secretary of State has rules about the boxes’ design, how they should be labeled and how often ballots should be retrieved. But county election officials decide how many boxes to have and where to put them.
