FRESNO (KMJ/AP) — A prominent GOP leader in California wants a federal law to ban so-called ballot harvesting. Republican National Committeeman Shawn Steele is calling on both Congress and President Trump to outlaw the practice before the 2020 election.
The act of ballot harvesting, in which absentee ballots are collected and turned in on behalf of voters by volunteers or workers, has been cited as a reason why some results shifted in the weeks following a vote. Some have expressed concern that it makes elections vulnerable to fraud.
“The solution is, sadly, to go federal,” says Steele. “We have to go through Congress, and it’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to have to mandate what we call a ‘Secrecy of the Ballot Act’ and that is nobody is going to be able to pick up your ballot and simply deposit it without knowing who they are, and there’s got to be special medical circumstances.”
Steele said he is not sure how ballot harvesting sways the result, but cites the seven Republican seats lost in California in 2018 as five of them initially showed GOP wins.
“It’s time that we put an end to this scandalous practice that is ripe with opportunities for fraud and unethical behavior.
“Congress needs to act to ensure the integrity of our elections and that each ballot is counted honestly.”
Central Valley Congress-members Jeff Denham and David Valadao both lost their seats in 2018 following a flurry of late-arriving ballots.
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
