This past week, many Californians found out that there were illegal drop-off boxes placed around the state. These boxes were placed by the Republican Party. In order to get people to drop off their ballots there, the Republican party has advertised the locations of those boxes on social media. By telling voters that they were official boxes when in reality they aren’t, the republican party is misleading voters and trying to suppress many votes.
Many people believe that this was done because of Donald Trump’s disapproval of voting by mail. Trump has mentioned multiple times that voting by mail will cause fraud in the 2020 election. He believes that it is better to vote in person (even during a pandemic) than to vote through the mail.
In order to prevent more voters from dropping off their ballots into unofficial boxes, California’s secretary of state and attorney general sent a letter to the Republican party giving them until Thursday, October 15, to get the ballot names of those who have already dropped their ballots in the unofficial boxes in order to make those votes count. If the Republican Party does not comply, there will be necessary actions that will take place.
So, if you’re voting this year in California, make sure you are taking your ballot to the correct boxes rather than the illegal ones where your vote will not count.