California GOP accused of setting up fake official ballot drop-off boxes across the state

The California Republicans faced questions about unofficial drop-off boxes set up to collect mail-in votes across the state.

Reports from boxes like this have been shared with California Secretary of State Alex Patila, who claims to be official, suggesting they are illegal.

“Operating unofficial ballot boxes — especially those misrepresented as official ballot boxes — is not only misleading voters, it is a violation of state law,” he said. Orange County Registration.

Following the dropping of a drop-off box with him, Orange County Registrar Neil Kelly said: “We are investigating this and the CA Secretary of State has issued guidelines to ensure that unofficial ballot boxes do not comply with state law. We need to appoint someone to return the ballot. “

Orange County Registration Kelly said he could not confirm where the flagged box was or who was responsible for it. A Regional Domain Director of the Republican Party of California has shared a photo of himself presenting himself with an official drop-box.

Responding to a text below Kelly’s comments on Twitter, the California GOP cited the law, which said it legalized such boxes.

“This practice has been in place since 2016 – not sure why people are suddenly surprised,” it wrote on Twitter. This was shared with an article on ballot harvesting.

The group also tweeted: “If a congregation / business or other group offers its parishioners / allies / or colleagues the option of leaving their ballot in a safe place with people they trust, rather than handing it over to strangers knocking on their door – what’s wrong with that?”

Like the reports in Orange County, a drop-box has been flagged to the Los Angeles County Registrar. In the box, outside a church, there was a sign that said, “Leave the official ballot box.”

Responding to a tweet about this, the LA County Registrar wrote: “Thank you for warning us about this. This is not an ‘official vote by mail drop box’ and does not comply with the CA election rules for drop boxes. It is reported that we are following.”

Newsweek The California GOP and the Secretary of State for California have been contacted for comment.

The situation comes with the president Donald Trump Despite the lack of evidence from previous elections in support of this, it has long been suggested that the global postal vote would be open to widespread fraud. He The weekend doubled these claims.