California Republicans placed illegal drop boxes

California’s Republican Party on Monday acknowledged owning unofficial ballot drop boxes that state election officials said are illegal. California election officials received reports during the weekend about the boxes in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange counties. On Sunday, the secretary of state issued a memo telling county registrars the boxes were illegal and that ballots must be mailed or brought to official voting locations. “In short, providing unauthorized, non-official vote-by-mail ballot drop boxes is prohibited by state law,” the memo said. State GOP spokesman Hector Barajas said that the party owns the boxes. He declined to comment on how many exist and where they are located. Barajas said the state’s law governing so-called “ballot harvesting” allows an organisation to collect and return groups of ballots. “Democrats only seem to object to ballot harvesting when someone else does it,” Barajas said. Irregularities and mistakes are surfacing around the country as more voters than ever seek to vote by mail and demand for mail-in ballots has skyrocketed. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">