The Republican Party of Orange County is hosting what it’s calling a “first-ever ballot collection day.”
Seven GOP offices around the county will open all day on Friday, Oct. 11 and serve as a place for people to register to vote, pick up a yard sign or even hand over their ballots.
It’s important to note, though, that while the day-long OCGOP event is billed as an opportunity for the local party to “serve as designated ballot drop-off locations,” none of the sites listed is actually an official vote center, run by the county registrar of voters with security measures in place.
Related links
Orange County Register’s November 5, 2024 General Election Voter Guide
Map: Where are ballot drop boxes and vote centers in Orange County for 2024 election?
Election 2024: Am I registered to vote? Here’s how Orange County voters can check
Only one of the seven GOP locations — 6940 Beach Blvd. in Buena Park — does have an official ballot drop box on that property. The drop box is in The Source OC parking structure, on level one near the escalator, while the OCGOP is holding its event in an office inside the building.
“This initiative marks a new effort to make ballot submission more accessible for voters across the county,” the OCGOP said in an email about Friday’s program.
“The Republican Party of Orange County is committed to providing voters with more options to safely submit their ballots while maintaining the highest level of election integrity,” the email said. “With multiple locations across the county, this is the perfect opportunity for voters to securely drop off their completed ballots with confidence.”
In California, all registered voters are mailed a ballot — those should start hitting mailboxes this week, if they haven’t already — and voters can authorize someone else to return their ballot on their behalf — as long as that person is not getting paid per ballot to do so, according to the secretary of state.
But state law also prohibits “the use of unauthorized, non-official vote-by-mail ballot drop boxes if they are presented in a way that makes the ballot box appear as an official drop box provided by the county elections office and would thereby deceive a voter into casting a ballot into an unofficial ballot box,” the secretary of state said in a memo during the primary elections.
Specifically, state election code says that someone could be fined up to $1,000 or imprisoned for up to three years if they display a container to collect ballots “with the intent to deceive a voter into casting a ballot in an unofficial ballot box.”
“Evidence of intent to deceive may include using the word ‘official’ on the container, or otherwise fashioning the container in a way that is likely to deceive a voter into believing that the container is an official collection box that has been approved by an elections official,” the code said.
Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said he has not communicated with the OCGOP about Friday’s event or “their get out the vote plans.”
Legal questions aside, Sarah Hill, who teaches political science at Cal State Fullerton, said that “from an election administration perspective, this is a really bad idea.”
“Ballots can be mailed directly to the registrar of voters free of charge, and that is much preferred over handing over a ballot to a third party,” Hill said. “It’s just risky to involve any other group rather than directly returning ballots; it’s not something I would recommend.”
California elections officials in 2020 issued cease and desist orders to local GOP officials in multiple counties, including Orange, as well as the California Republican Party for operating unofficial ballot drop boxes. Those boxes had popped up at churches, gun shops and local political party offices during the presidential election.
Republicans then accused Democrats of suppressing Republican voting efforts.
“Are we really supposed to believe it’s fine for paid Democrat operatives to collect ballots from strangers and throw them in a bag, but churches aren’t allowed to collect them for members of their congregation and put them in a box?” Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, said then.
The OCGOP’s Friday events are being hosted in Buena Park, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Orange, San Clemente, Tustin and Westminster.
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