First of all, why isn’t this better covered by the media? I have seen a few stories but none of them express the outrage it seems this deserves.
Next, isn’t this criminal? To place a box in public and label it “Official Ballot Drop Box” or whatever it says. They are claiming to be official but are controlled by a political party with questionable motives at best. This seems like fraud and like election tampering on a pretty much open and shut basis; is it being investigated by law enforcement? The news reports that the GOP put out the boxes as a matter of established fact, has the California Republican Party admitted they are behind the boxes?
If this is a Republican shady tactic isn’t it guaranteed to backfire? I know the GOP makes a point of respecting strength – but to the point of endorsing blatant cheating? I don’t even see a chance of plausible deniability. Without any oversight whatsoever, they certainly cannot claim they are trying to help the process – only deny they are doing it only to help themselves.
Last two items, was this cooked up in Washington by Trump or at minimum the national committee, or locally in California? It seems unlikely they believed they were really going to flip California (although who knows how bold such a corrupt and immoral party may attempt to be), what was the goal here? Is it is steal votes, or to prove Trump’s assertion that there is voter fraud to bolster his legal challenges after the election?
As for why it wasn’t covered more, I think that it’s because the GOP has a giant apparatus that feeds the false narrative that election fraud is common, when in fact it seems like it is mostly committed by Republicans trying to undermine confidence in elections. Not surprisingly, the GOP has little interest in pushing this narrative and so their PR apparatus is silent.
The media might not be paying attention because this has no effect on the Presidential race. California will go Democratic in any event.
However, this is still fraud, and still a disgusting attempt to steal congressional districts. And, of course, they can just claim it’s legal (like that “beautiful” phone call).
Article made it into today’s Chicago Tribune; my wife was talking about it this morning; it’s not being hidden. Without being a lawyer in California, my take on the whole thing is that the Republican Party is stating that it is legal to “harvest” ballots, and that’s what they’re doing. The law, however, states that an INDIVIDUAL PERSON must sign for the ballots to prove chain of possession, and these drop boxes do not allow for that.
My question is why are the Republican organizations doing this? If, as FlickTheBlue stated, this is about some purple districts, then the local Republican organizations are admitting that the drop boxes work at increasing voter turnout; they’re placing them at very red locations (Republican party headquarters, gun shops) to pull in additional Republican votes. HOWEVER, I think they know that the boxes are illegal, that officially the votes should not be counted, but they’re going to SCREAM BLOODY MURDER when the official Registrar excludes the ballots, and I suspect that this will be touted by the current occupant as proof that “Mail-In-Voting” is full of fraud.
Thank you for the linked article, much more information than I had. It seems this is a California GOP instigated thing and not any White House plot. But the nerve of these Republicans to dismiss the cease and desist order is mind boggling.
Obviously the California law will need to be tweaked in the next session to address what “official” means and specifically what entities can place ballot drop boxes. But these efforts are just more of the “Republicans are the evil empire” attitude that is driving people like me away. Amazing to me how the party that controls the White House, the US Senate, and many state governors and legislatures can paint itself as a victim of political manipulation. How unfair that Republicans should have to obey laws they disagree with – so they just ignore them.
Exactly!!
This has to backfire with every decent person aware of it. That is why it needs coverage if it affects the presidential race or not.
That makes perfect sense also. Democrats are damned with illegal votes if they contest the votes – and supporting the president’s insane claims if they don’t.
Obviously, Republicans have given up on decency of any stripe and “personal responsibility” only means not being poor of non-white.
If this had been something to hurt the GOP, Fox News commentators would talk about it incessantly, then the Fox News anchors would report the “controversy” and the other media outlets would pick it up. By the end of the day, there would be calls for Biden to denounce the action.
The GOP flouting election laws is just not that newsworthy, it’s dog bites man.
Oh I don’t think it was intended to harm the GOP, the whole thing is of their creation. What I believe, is that any fair and decent minded voter will see it is a vile and corrupt application of the most abusive interpretation of a law in modern times. It will create ill will toward the California Republican Party by anyone who learns of it. That is why FOX News will not give it any time at all until some spin specialist can give it more justification than it has on its own merit.
That’s my point. If this was something the Democrats did, the Fox News outrage machine would fire up and push the story. Because there is no apparatus on the other side, it doesn’t get the same treatment.
You forgot that Trump would be incessantly tweeting about it being yet another case of voter fraud. And being in California, it was undoubtedly stuffed with ballots signed by “illegals” and pet dogs and cats.
If Trump has taught us anything, it is that laws don’t matter, and enforcement officials are impotent - if you argue strenuously against the law and enforcement agency. The GOP has learned this lesson and will continue to follow it’s dictates. This is but one example.
This is exactly why I am so fed up with my party (for the moment)! The hypocrisy, insincerity, and immorality of the current Republican party just sickens me and I hope they suffer sever backlash over this stunt in addition to losing the White House and US Senate.
Republicans have a very few months (after the inauguration) to rehabilitate themselves or they will start to die off. i don’t even care which anymore but something must be done about those who present individuals to be our leaders – legal and MORAL!
For me it comes down to either you are for democracy, or you’re not. If winning elections means breaking election laws and using your time in office to suppress minorities from voting, then you’re doing democracy wrong. (The generic you).
No, CA law does cover legal ballot harvesting. The voter needs to sign a section on the back of the envelope, the “harvester” needs to log it and give a receipt. Basically it is done in old folks homes, where even a walk to the mailbox is too much.
These boxes are clearly illegal. The GOP may be looking at jail time or huge fines.
But what happens to the ballots that have already been collected?
I would assume that someone at the BOE would have to contact the voters, and recreate a chain of custody somehow from there.
If they can’t contact them, then it seems as though the ballot has to be considered to be invalid.
Either way works out for them, either the BOE gets swamped trying to decluster the situation, or a whole bunch of Republican voters have their ballots discarded, with the intent of that delegitimizing the election results. Or a bit of both.
Yeah, the people who voted this way need to be told that the boxes they used were not real ballot boxes, so that they still have time to vote in the election. I understand that these voters will likely vote in a way I don’t like, but I still support their right to vote.