Calif. Republican Party Says It Won't Take Down Illegal 'Ballot Boxes' Despite State Orders

[appalachiablue]

'Calif. Repub. Party says it won't take down illegal 'ballot boxes' despite state orders,' Hunter, Daily Kos, 10/13/20.



- This 'ballot box' is illegal.

On Monday, it came to light that the California Republican Party was placing what they called "official ballot drop off boxes" in locations deemed to be Republican-friendly (such as, no kidding, 'gun stores') in apparent efforts to make it easier for Republican voters to vote than not-Republican voters. There are two problems with this. First: It's not legal. California law allows voters to designate a person to drop their ballot off at an official location rather than going themselves; it does not allow the "designated person" to be an unattended cardboard box. (And yes, some of the "official ballot drop off boxes" are merely 'simple cardboard boxes with no locking security mechanism.')

The second problem is, yes, ballot security. Voters may not be aware that these very much not official "drop off boxes" are managed by unknown Republican operatives, and there's no guarantee the ballots collected in such boxes won't "accidentally" be, to use a recent Trumpian example, dumped into a river. (I kid. Here in California we don't have rivers. They could be dumped into storm drains, though, which would be problematic because all the aspiring sewer actors do not need more lines to practice.)

There's nothing to say the ballots the Republican Party claims to be collecting won't be sorted through, perhaps to weed out non-Republican looking names, or otherwise disposed of. That's why California ballot-harvesting laws require a designee. California officials have now warned the state Republican Party that what they're doing is illegal and may even result in prison time. The Republican Party has responded in the expected way: They don't care, and won't be complying with state demands to remove the boxes.

More specifically, the California Republican Party intends to continue the operation while daring state officials to do anything about it.

Party spokesperson Hector Barajas noted that a 2018 state law prohibits election officials from rejecting a ballot solely because it was returned without the required designee signature or relationship to the voter, signaling that the party intends to collect ballots however they want, handle and turn them in however they want, and dare election officials to throw those votes away. Election officials will almost certainly not do that, so here we are.

It's another case of the party's all-encompassing insistence that laws don't matter if bending the law would benefit the party...

More + 119 Comments,

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/13/1986163/-California-orders-Republican-Party-to-remove-illegal-ballot-boxes-party-says-it-won-t-comply

[Chainfire]

1. It sounds like the time to "lock someone up."

The state needs to pick up and destroy the illegal boxes.

[appalachiablue]

2. Outrageous, Banana Republic style, the state must act.

[TheRealNorth]

4. Yes

Stop the game playing. Obtain a restraining order and if they still do not comply then Lock'em up.

[Sneederbunk]

3. A couple of no-bail arrests would work wonders.

[yonder]

10. Yes it would. Legal or not. And when they squawk about it, send that detention issue to the courts.

Put it on the docket for a couple of months. Take a page out of the repub playbook and see how they like it.

[Turbineguy]

5. When you are a republican

the laws do not apply to you.

[Thomas Hurt]

6. Arrest them, confiscate the boxes with warrants if need be...let them sue.

[catrose]

7. Can't the government remove them, though it will be like playing whack-a-mole?

[jmbar2]

8. Dems need to stand around the boxes with warning signs

It should be made a crime to try to interfere with an election in any manner.

[Thekaspervote]

9. Enough is enough! Remove the damn things and dare them to do anything about it!

And prison time for those defying the law

[RussBLib]

11. get the state to remove them!

don't rely on any "letter" asking them to stop, for chrissakes

[Varaddem]

12. So I think they are admitting to a felony

Arrest whoever comes to collect them. Sounds like a conspiracy. Probably need a SWAT team to deal with this.

[PSPS]

13. A page from putin's playbook entitled, "Belarus."

Like everywhere else in the country these days, officials apparently are impotent or unwilling to go beyond the silly "strongly-worded letter" charade.