Ballot harvesting is legal in California.
QUICK FACTS:
- Republicans in California are now embracing ballot harvesting, collecting mail-in ballots by third-party individuals.
- Although considered to be election fraud in many states, the practice was legalized in California by the Democratic Party.
- While previously opposed to ballot harvesting, the California Republican Party now views the measure as a means of boosting voter turnout.
- “These are the rules that we have been given. And we have to play by those rules,” explained California Republican Party Chairperson Jessica Millan Patterson. “It doesn’t make any sense to only be Election Day voters. That is like only playing three quarters of a football game.”
- Donald Trump has argued that ballot harvesting contributes to a “rigged voting system,” telling California Republicans that “[w]e would win California in a general election if they didn’t have a rigged voting system, where they send out 22 million ballots.”
- Democrats flipped seven congressional seats in the state of California in 2018 through ballot harvesting, according to Breitbart.
STATEMENT FROM OFFICIALS:
- “We will continue to do the work that we’re doing to make sure that individuals are voting by every legal means necessary,” Patterson declared.
- Ballot harvesting could make a difference in swing districts, the Republican chairperson noted.
- According to Cynthia Thacker, an organizer in the GOP’s Take Back North Orange County movement, ballot harvesting is “our way of at least making sure—instead of mailing it—that we can try and get your ballot counted.”
- President of the California Voter Foundation Kim Alexander said positive ballot harvesting is dependent upon trust between the voter and ballot collector.
- “That’s why I would always urge people to only turn their ballot over to somebody who they trust, and to make sure that person takes some time to fill out that information in their presence so they know that person is being accountable to them,” Alexander stated.
BACKGROUND:
- American Faith reported Tuesday that duplicated ballots had been found in San Diego, California.
- An estimated 7,500 voters received extra ballots for the November 7 special elections.
- While one set of these duplicate ballots has been rendered invalid in the computer system, voters who mistakenly cast their vote using these will still have their votes counted.
- A similar incident occurred in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
