Trump urges California GOP to 'fight hard' on unsanctioned, possibly illegal ballot drop boxes

California's Republican Party has until Thursday to comply with a cease-and-desist order requiring them to remove private ballot drop boxes, some of them labeled "official," and hand state election officials a list of all ballots collected in the boxes to make sure the voters gave their consent. The California GOP insists their new form of remote "ballot harvesting" is legal under a 2016 law, amended in 2018, that allows designated people to collect mail-in ballots.

"Haven't the Dems been doing this for years?" President Trump tweeted Tuesday. "See you in court. Fight hard Republicans!"

Democrats organized an effective system in 2018 where voters asked volunteers to hand in their mail-in ballots. Republicans, who blame the loss of several congressional seats on this Democratic effort, say their drop boxes are legal under the same law. "Screw you!" Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) told Democrats in a radio interview Tuesday. "You created the law, we're going to ballot harvest."

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Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra, both Democrats, say the law does not allow collecting ballots in third-party boxes and officials responsible for them face prosecution if they don't comply with the cease-and-desist order.

Legal experts disagree on whether the GOP boxes violate the law, but labeling the boxes "official" is clearly illegal. California GOP spokesman Hector Barajas said the party will stop labeling its boxes "official" but might expand their use. "We are just working with the rules that Democrats put in front of us," he told The Associated Press.

Some election law experts, like Rick Hasen at U.C. Irvine, said the courts will ultimately have to decide if the GOP is breaking state law. Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D), who wrote the law, told the Los Angels Times "it is clear that you can designate a person, but not a lock box," to collect your ballot, adding: "I just think it's unfortunate after crying foul for years about voter fraud, the Republican Party has taken it in their own hands and committed voter fraud."

Raúl Macías at the Brennan Center for Justice said it sounds to him "like the GOP officials are likely committing a felony by likely impersonating election officials." And they're likely "trolling election officials" by publicly flouting the law, he told the Times. "Undermining confidence, creating confusion, spreading disinformation — these are forms of voter suppression. It lays a groundwork to later claim you can't trust the voter results."