Report: Political Weaponization of Ballot Harvesting in California

Ballot harvesting is the practice of permitting any individual to collect and return an unlimited number of mail or absentee ballots without a documented chain of custody or proper state oversight. The issue of ballot harvesting was thrust onto the national stage following the defeat of multiple Republican California Members of Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. It was several days after the election, and after the counting of hundreds of thousands of ballots harvested under a new California law, when election observers and California voters started to raise red flags on what they witnessed.

The Committee on House Administration (“Committee”), and its Subcommittee on Elections, is responsible for all matters related to election law and is charged with investigating election irregularities. Under this charge, the Committee had official election observers in California in the days leading up to, and immediately following, the 2018 midterm elections. These observers reported that hundreds of ballots were returned by unknown individuals. Additionally, shortly after election day, allegations of fraud connected with ballot harvesting surfaced in North Carolina’s 9 th Congressional District. It was here that political operatives, through the ballot harvesting process, committed fraud on an unprecedented scale, nearly undetected.

...While many states have taken appropriate measures to rein in the potential fraud and abuse that is associated with ballot harvesting, California has doubled down on the practice. Further, the State has been shielded from criticism and responsibility by a Democratcontrolled U.S. House of Representatives. The report that follows outlines the political weaponization of ballot harvesting in California, what has happened since the 2018 midterm election, and the work of the Committee Republicans to bring awareness to potentially the greatest threat to ballot integrity in this country.

We took the if you can't beat em join em approach. Oh boy were they mad.

https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/20/california-ballot-boxes-state-attorney-general-sues-gop/5999624002/

They were hoisted on their own petard.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-21/judge-rejects-california-attorney-general-investigation-gop-ballot-boxes

The first time I have proud of the local party in years.

without a documented chain of custody

That's the key legal issue. While someone may entrust another person to take a ballot to the polls, that jeopardizes electoral fairness for others as there's no guarantee of fidelity, thus compromising the votes of other voters. The 14th amendment's equal protection clause (section 1) is the key to fixing Biden's election theft.

But I'd love to see Section 2 applied as well -- as it should, since anyone committing or willfully benefitting from election fraud is ipso facto committing fraud, rebellion and treason:

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

CA is currently on its second attempt to recall Gov Newsom. The first attempt, the Secretary of State declared not enough signatures were gathered so the first effort failed. The same will happen to the 2nd attempt. IMO, There were more than enough signatures gathered to initiate the recall but the corrupt CA democrats in the State House dictate what the voters in the State vote on. Abject government corruption begets more abject government corruption as we witness nation wide voter fraud and election rigging. The communist playbook is in full view in CA.

The communist playbook is in full view in CA.

Yup. And people from other states better take a very close look at the strategies and tactics on display here, because California is a testbed.

There are still enough conservatives here to make it a battle, though, so this is where the commie Democrats see what they can get away with.

I am actually proud of the CAGOP for the first time in well...since the recall of Grey Davis. The beat the Democrats at their own game. This is the future of politics in America.

Hispanics are tired of the Democrats shit, and like Florida this should be a launching off point.

In addition to chain of custody issues, ballot harvesting also violates the secret ballot. I'm not sure where that is a protected right, but I am very certain precedent exists, as well as federal code, such as this governing labor unions:

29 CFR § 452.96 - General
The Act safeguards democratic processes by prescribing, in section 401, minimum standards for the regular periodic election of officers in labor organizations subject to its provisions

§ 452.97 Secret ballot. (a) A prime requisite of elections regulated by title IV is that they be held by secret ballot among the members or in appropriate cases by representatives who themselves have been elected by secret ballot among the members. A secret ballot under the Act is “the expression by ballot, voting machine, or otherwise, but in no event by proxy, of a choice * * * cast in such a manner that the person expressing such choice cannot be identified with the choice expressed.” 47 Secrecy may be assured by the use of voting machines, or, if paper ballots are used, by providing voting booths, partitions, or other physical arrangements permitting privacy for the voter while he is marking his ballot. The ballot must not contain any markings which upon examination would enable one to identify it with the voter. Balloting by mail presents special problems in assuring secrecy. Although no particular method of assuring such secrecy is prescribed, secrecy may be assured by the use of a double envelope system for return of the voted ballots with the necessary voter identification appearing only on the outer envelope.

Also, while not actual code (authorizes a report, this law contains an explicit statement of a "right" to a secret ballot:

52 U.S. Code § 20982.Study, report, and recommendations on best practices for facilitating military and overseas voting
2(B)The rights of absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters to register to vote and cast absentee ballots, including the right of such voters to cast a secret ballot.

Finally, while I don't see any explicit protection for a secret ballot in 52 U.S. Code § 10101.Voting rights, but it does prohibit "interference":

(b)Intimidation, threats, or coercion No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to vote for, any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector, Member of the Senate, or Member of the House of Representatives, Delegates or Commissioners from the Territories or possessions, at any general, special, or primary election held solely or in part for the purpose of selecting or electing any such candidate.

emphasis mine.

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