CA Orders State GOP To Remove Fraudulent Ballot Boxes From LA

LOS ANGELES, CA — The California Republican Party planted fraudulent ballot collection boxes across Los Angeles and two other counties over the weekend. On Monday, the California Attorney General ordered the party to remove all of these illegal boxes by Thursday or potentially face prosecution.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra sent cease and desist letters to the California Republican Party Monday after unauthorized ballot boxes were discovered in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The California Republican Party has admitted to planting the unofficial boxes, but is alleging that the action was perfectly legal under a 2016 law that allows voters to designate someone to turn in their ballot for them.

But these boxes were left unattended with no clear signatory to turn in the ballots.

"We have no idea what happens to these ballots after they are deposited at one of these unofficial so called drop boxes," Becerra said Monday afternoon at a news conference. "We have no idea who collects it, we have no idea if it’s tampered with, we have no idea if it’s even returned or deposited to the county to be counted."

Erecting or fraudulently advertising any unofficial ballot drop box could result in a felony that carries a two to four year sentence, Secretary of State Alex Padilla's office said in a statement Sunday.

All voters who may have deposited a ballot into one of these fake ballot boxes were advised to track their ballot through the state's Where's My Ballot tool available on their website.
Counties are instructed to contact voters if a ballot arrives without a signature.

"This incident is also a reminder to voters: You are ultimately in control over your ballot," Padilla said Monday afternoon.

A "questionable" ballot box was removed from outside Freedom’s Way Baptist Church over the weekend in Castaic, Fox LA reported.

These unauthorized and illegal ballot boxes were reported in locations including political party offices, candidate headquarters and churches across the state, according to multiple reports.

Pastor Jerry Cook of Freedom’s Way Baptist Church invited churchgoers to drop their ballots off in front of the church in a Facebook post over the weekend. Dozens have since taken to the church's Facebook page to condemn Cook for encouraging voters to use the unofficial box.

Cook did not immediately responded to Patch for comment. According to Fox LA, Cook was confident the box was official.

The California Republican Party has admitted to planting some of these unofficial boxes throughout Southern California, and tweeted their defense, claiming that the boxes were legal under a 2016 law that allows voters to designate someone to turn in their ballot for them.

But these ballot boxes were left unattended.

Placing or fraudulently advertising any unofficial ballot drop box could result in a felony that carries a two to four year sentence, Padilla's office announced Sunday.

"The way Democrats wrote the law, if we wanted to use a Santa bag, we could. A locked heavy box seems a lot safer,” Hector Barajas, a spokesman for the California Republican Party, told Patch Monday afternoon.

The law permits "ballot harvesting," a practice that was previously condemned by Republican leaders.

SEE ALSO: Fake Ballot Drop Boxes Alarm OC Voters

The California GOP sued Gov. Gavin Newsom over the practice earlier this year when Democratic campaign workers went door-to-door collecting ballots. The party alleged that the action conflicted with the COVID-19 stay-at-home order in April.

“If a congregation/business or other group provides the option to its parishioners/associates/ or colleagues to drop off their ballot in a safe location, with people they trust, rather than handing it over to a stranger who knocks on their door — what is wrong with that?” the California GOP also tweeted Sunday.

In past elections, California Democrats have also held "ballot parties," where voters would fill out a mail-in ballot and leave them with a designated volunteer to turn in massive stacks of ballots at once.

But Padilla's office said that the unofficial boxes placed by the GOP are illegal because the 2016 law requires a voter to designate a specific person to return the ballot.

The individual must be "a person to whom a voter entrusts their vote-by-mail ballot to return to the county elections official must include their signature on the return vote-by-mail envelope as a the person authorized to return the ballot," Padilla's office said Sunday.

The entrusted ballot handler is also required to provide their name and state their relationship to the voter.

"The Democrats amended the law to remove all of the restrictions on WHO can harvest ballots and provided NO rules about HOW ballots can be collected except that someone cannot be compensated per-ballot," Barajas wrote to Patch in an email, responding to Padilla's statement Monday."The CRP’s program goes above and beyond, is less coercive and more secure than other methods of collecting ballots."

Over the weekend, additional reports were made to the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk that churches around the county had unofficial ballot drop boxes on their properties, Mike Sanchez, spokesperson for the LA County Registrar-Recorder told Patch.

These boxes were identified as an "official drop box."

"To be clear, they are not official County Drop Box," Sanchez said in an email to Patch. "The drop boxes identified at these places of worship do not comply with regulations for Ballot Drop Boxes."

The LA County Registrar has attempted to reach out to these locations and were working with counsel to issue a cease and desist letter.

"Additionally, we have reported this to the Secretary of State’s Office." Sanchez said.

A map and tool to locate ballot drop off locations in Los Angeles County can be accessed here.

Many of these boxes, spotted around Los Angeles and Orange counties, were falsely marked "official," with some unattended. Padilla's office states that unstaffed drop boxes must also have an opening slot that is "not large enough to allow ballots to be tampered with or removed."

The California GOP did not immediately respond to Patch for comment.

Jordan Tygh, regional field director for the California GOP tweeted a photo of himself next to the unofficial ballot box that was fraudulently labeled "official." Later, the tweet was deleted.

“Doing my part and voting early,” Tygh wrote in the now-deleted tweet. “DM me for convenient locations to drop your ballot off at!”

The National Republican Congressional Committee also jumped into the ring on Twitter Tuesday to defend the fraudulent ballot boxes.

The tweet suggested that Democrats were "...only ok with ballot harvesting when it’s the Democrats ballot harvesting."

This article originally appeared on the Los Angeles Patch