• Home
  • Independent Voter News
  • Quizzes
  • Election Dissection
  • Sections
  • Events
  • Directory
  • About Us
  • Glossary
  • Opinion
  • Campaign Finance
  • Redistricting
  • Civic Ed
  • Voting
  • Fact Check
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Election Dissection>
  3. drop box>

The ironic California drop box controversy

Steven Huefner
October 14, 2020
California ballot drop box

Not all ballot drop boxes in California are officially, even if labeled that way.

League of Women Voters of California

There's a double irony in California's ballot drop box controversy, where the state Republican Party has placed private ballot collection boxes in several counties. Though the boxes are intended to make voting more convenient, the California secretary of state has issued a cease-and-desist order prohibiting them.

First, it's ironic that in several other states Republicans are the ones asking courts to limit ballot collection boxes. When voting rights groups (for instance in Ohio and Texas) or state officials (for instance in Pennsylvania) have attempted to increase the number of official ballot collection boxes, Republicans have said this isn't explicitly authorized by state law. The boxes aren't sufficiently secure, or they would lead to voter confusion, Republicans said.

Alleged security issues with official drop boxes have little basis in reality, but there are real concerns about the unofficial drop boxes in California. No state or local election officials are responsible for these unauthorized boxes. A voter who entrusts a mail-in ballot to a private organization leaves the ballot at the mercy of that organization.


This is the controversy behind "ballot harvesting," when private actors collect and return large batches of mail-in ballots. A voter who places a ballot in an unofficial collection box can't know whether the ballot will be manipulated while it's there, or even that it will ever reach election officials. Widespread private collection of mail-in ballots may undermine confidence in the election. That's why California officials view these private collection boxes as both dangerous and unauthorized.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The California Republican Party claims that its actions are legal, and that a recent law permits voters to designate a third party to return their mail-in ballots. The secretary of state agrees that third parties now may collect and return batches of ballots, but argues that they can't use unofficial drop boxes to do so. Each voter is supposed to designate the person who is returning the ballot on their behalf, the secretary says. That safeguard reduces the risks of large-scale ballot harvesting.

That leads to the second irony in the California controversy. In states like Arizona, the Republican Party has fought to prevent private organizations from collecting batches of mail-in ballots, because the practice makes them more vulnerable to fraud. Yet this is the exact problem the unofficial drop boxes are creating in California.

As a legal matter, there's nothing wrong with political actors making the most of specific provisions in state law to their political advantage. But we see a party deploying unsecure, unsupervised private collection boxes for voter convenience in one state, and the same party arguing it's a problem for other states to expand the number of official — and therefore properly secured and supervised — ballot collection boxes. The party can't have it both ways.

Steven Huefner is professor of law and deputy director of the election law program at The Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. Read more from The Fulcrum's Election Dissection blog.

From Your Site Articles
  • Trump campaign files lawsuit challenging Pa. mail voting - The ... ›
  • Trump team sues to stop New Jersey's vote-by-mail plan - The Fulcrum ›
  • Fight erupts in California over drop boxes and the limits of 'harvesting' ›
  • Voting by mail is secure. Here are the security measures. - The ... ›
  • ballot harvesting ›
  • Proponents give up fight for more ballot boxes in Ohio - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • California pastor encouraged his parishioners to use an ... ›
  • Ballot Drop Box ›
  • California GOP put up unofficial ballot drop-off boxes that may be ... ›
  • Find Your Vote Center and Dropbox Locations :: California Secretary ... ›
drop box

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Risks and rewards in a polarized nation: Businesses face tough choices after Roe v. Wade ruling

Richard Davies

The economic blame game, part 1: Blame your opponents

David L. Nevins

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Jeremy Garson

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Jay Paterno

Re-imagining Title IX: An opportunity to flex our civic muscles

Lisa Kay Solomon

'Independent state legislature theory' is unconstitutional

Daniel O. Jamison
latest News

Busy day ahead with primaries or runoffs in seven states

Richard Perrins
Reya Kumar
Kristin Shiuey
5h

The state of voting: June 27, 2022

Our Staff
5h

Video: Faces of democracy

Our Staff
10h

How the anti-abortion movement shaped campaign finance law and paved the way for Trump

Amanda Becker, The 19th
24 June

Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Our Staff
24 June

A study in contrasts: Low-turnout runoffs vs. Alaska’s top-four, all-mail primary

David Meyers
23 June
Videos

Video: Memorial Day 2022

Our Staff

Video: Helping loved ones divided by politics

Our Staff

Video: What happened in Virginia?

Our Staff

Video: Infrastructure past, present, and future

Our Staff

Video: Beyond the headlines SCOTUS 2021 - 2022

Our Staff

Video: Should we even have a debt limit

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Did economists move the Democrats to the right?

Our Staff
02 May

Podcast: The future of depolarization

Our Staff
11 February

Podcast: Sore losers are bad for democracy

Our Staff
20 January

Deconstructed Podcast from IVN

Our Staff
08 November 2021
Recommended
Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey

Busy day ahead with primaries or runoffs in seven states

State of voting - election law changes

The state of voting: June 27, 2022

Voting
Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Lauren Hobart

Risks and rewards in a polarized nation: Businesses face tough choices after Roe v. Wade ruling

Corporate Responsibility
Video: Faces of democracy

Video: Faces of democracy

Leadership
Federal Reserve Jerome Powell

The economic blame game, part 1: Blame your opponents

Leveraging big ideas
Bridge Alliance intern Sachi Bajaj speaks at the June 12 Civvy Awards.

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Leadership