So...people are talking about the GOP ballot boxes in California as a GOP vote fraud thing. But it's not. It's a *bonkers conspiracy nut* thing.

This is a story of Republicans suppressing their own vote by refusing to trust officially sanctioned ballot boxes. Short thread: /1

First off, this is legal. Remember that ballot harvesting is *legal* in CA. You can't fill it out for them, but you can drop off someone else's sealed ballot.

Second, Republicans are messaging their *own* voters with this. Not Dems. They want their own people using them./2

If Dems put their ballots in these boxes, they won't be discarded. How would the folks collecting them know? It's not like they're targeting Dems with this. They're targeting Republicans! At gun shops!

So in part, this is just GOP GOTV. Come get a gun, drop off a ballot. /3

But what's really going on here is California Republicans going down a bonkers conspiracy hole believing that their own registrars might somehow toss our their own mail votes.

So instead of distrusted county boxes, Repubs are pushing "trusted" ones at...gun shops & the like. /4

The problem, of course, is they aren't officially sanctioned. Who knows if the person collecting them will bring them? Or if they'll be stolen or sabotaged? No one official is watching. It's quite stupid.

But most GOP conspiracy behavior is. /5

Also, California Counties have plenty of dropoff boxes. They don't actually need to do this.

Functionally, they're just potentially suppressing their own vote by taking needless risks with their own ballots.

Have at it, guys. /end

Oh also--I should have noted. This may *not* actually be legal because in order to take someone's ballot for "harvesting", they have to sign off. So the gun shop owner /whoever would have to be present and sign off, then withdraw the box when gone.

So...yeah. Not legal unless someone signs off on *each ballot*. Which is what I have to assume is happening. Because if it's not...two things:

1) they're suppressing their own votes again! and 2) GOP activists will be going to jail.

The fact that they're listing specific times for dropping off the ballots leads me to believe that someone is likely present as a signing harvester.

Again, though: pretty stupid.

I feel compelled to add: yes--in theory a harvester could look up each address to check voter registration. This is always an issue with harvesting, and why most states ban it.

That said, if harvesters routinely tossed ballots, they would quickly be caught--just like in NC-09.

The only place a professional harvester who routinely tosses out opposing ballots is going, is jail. Same even goes if these "drop boxes" were unmanned (and thus clearly illegal.) The voters would know who took them, affidavits would be signed....and boom. Felony charges.