Written by Azella LaFerver (News Writer)
As the election time gets closer we are all wondering what voting will be like this year since we are unable to do in person voting we must resort to the next best thing. For this year’s voting it is being encouraged that those who are eligible to vote should try to cast their ballots at early voting sites or by mail. But some are choosing to exercise their right to vote on election day and some others just fear that their votes won’t be included or counted in this year’s election if they send it in by mail.
Since this year’s voting is affected by the COVID-19 there’s going to be new problems arising such as fake ballot drop boxes. In a recent case there were fake ballot drop boxes in Orange County at churches, political party offices, campaign headquarters, and different retail locations. These fake ballot drop boxes have also popped up in Los Angeles, Ventura, Fresno, and Ventura counties. These boxes were made to resemble county sanctioned containers.
The collection bins were not authorized by any elections office and, in some cases, were just simple cardboard boxes and had little to no security on them. The state law allows some organizations, volunteers and or campaign workers to collect completed ballots and drop them off at polling places or election offices but it is still illegal to put out unofficial ballot boxes and collect votes. These unofficial ballot boxes are both risky and very insecure.
Even though officials are aware of these unofficial boxes, it has been said that the ballots will still be counted if they are received. A third party signature is usually required with the collected mail in ballots but for this situation in particular they have said that they will still be counting them even without the signatures. During this election time things are so competitive and people are clearly doing whatever they can to get that boost for the president they are rooting for. Although, now they have been warned that making these boxes is a felony and can lead up to for years in prison.
People feel the need to try and cheat the system in order to get the president that they want, and with people doing things like this during a pandemic when people don’t have a lot of choices is unjust.
The Claw 