By Kaitlyn Harsey | Arts and Entertainment Editor
October 25, 2020
With the upcoming election, there will be more mail-in ballots than in years past because of the recent pandemic. The voters that use these mail-in ballots may be at high risk for contracting the virus. Others may just simply be people that work and cannot make it to the polls on election day. While many voters wait for their ballot to arrive in the mail, they will research where they can drop it off safely to ensure their vote is accounted for. However, fake ballot boxes started to pop up in California counties like Los Angeles, Ventura, Fresno, and Orange.
We now know that these ballot boxes were not just placed by a random person, but by the Republican GOP in California.
Earlier in the year, the Republican party was attacking the mail-in ballots, claiming that they were rigged against them; however, they then decided to plant these unlabeled ballot boxes.
“I have heard many Republicans on the news and around me that preach how the election is rigged against them due to the mail-in ballots, and now they are the ones skewing the election in their favor,” senior Aidan Hunt said. “I believe this is unconstitutional and the Californian Republican GOP should be punished for this.”
Many of these voting boxes look extremely real, while some look like office cabinets with a laminated piece of paper.
An article by CNN explains that the boxes are “planted indoors” and “staffed by volunteers or party officials.” Since these look so believable they are very easy to accidentally give your ballot away to the wrong people.
The Republican GOP also refuses to remove these fake boxes and will not comply with California’s state cease and desist order. This order forces whomever it convicts to stop allegedly illegal activity.
“These boxes are obviously terrible,” senior Luke Jones said. “They are a big threat to our constitutional republic.” These unofficial or fake ballot boxes are extremely dangerous, especially to newer voters who are unaware of what the actual voting process looks like. Hopefully voters saw the fake ballot box warnings on their local news and checked their box before submitting their ballots.
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