Post was not sent - check your email addresses! According to both Los Angeles news outlets, at about 8 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 18, officials said someone set on fire the ballots that were placed inside a designated metal box in front of the Baldwin Park public library. Chip In. USPS (2) Here we go again. A ballot drop box in a majority-Latino town in California was set on fire Sunday night, which may have destroyed up to 100 ballots two weeks before the Nov. 3 election. CHRIS DELMAS / AFP via Getty Images. All rights reserved. Los Angeles County officials are investigating the fire, which took place in Baldwin Park — a suburb nearly 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles with a nearly three-quarters Latino populationn. “The arson of an official ballot drop box by the Baldwin Park Library in the First District has all the signs of an attempt to disenfranchise voters and call into question the security of our elections,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis in a statement. A ballot drop box was set on fire in Boston on October 25 by an unidentified man in what election officials called a "deliberate attack". Tue Nov 3, 2020 Bruce Bawer. When they’re accessible, drop boxes are a hugely popular option with voters, too. Click here to get started! Per The Guardian, the fire department spent around two hours handling the incident. However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected their argument, and (as of now, anyway) drop boxes remain an option for Pennsylvania voters. “Tampering, or attempts to tamper, with our democracy will not be tolerated.”. … States like California make an effort to put drop boxes at centrally located places around town, such as libraries, civic buildings and assisted living facilities, making it easier for voters to submit their ballot in the normal course of their day. Still, opponents — including President Trump — argue that drop boxes do not sufficiently protect ballots from being tampered with, and they have opposed the boxes’ use in at least one swing state this year. Connect with Us for Updates. This year, we’re asking President Trump to bring accountability to America’s ballot boxes by using American Church Communities and Synagogue Communities to handle the ballot boxes, from start to … Chip In. (By contrast, states that regularly conduct elections by mail have much more specific guidelines to alleviate overcrowding. The good news is almost every state allows you to drop off your mail ballot in person instead of mailing it; the only states where you can’t are Mississippi, Missouri1 and Tennessee. Connect with Us for Updates. However, as with seemingly every other aspect of election administration this year, drop boxes have become a controversial proposal. By contrast, any ballot deposited in a drop box by the deadline is considered to have arrived on time, providing the voter with both peace of mind and an extra few days to fill out her ballot. 22 ballot drop boxes are now available for use across Prince George’s County. BallotBox.Info is a group of non-partisans volunteering their time to provide a tool for finding and utilizing Ballot Box voting. To voting-rights advocates, the convenience and ubiquity of drop boxes is one of their chief selling points. And given just how many states have expanded their use of drop boxes during the pandemic, it could become a favored method of voting across much of the country this year. Get your own corner of the Web for less! Nathaniel Rakich is an elections analyst at FiveThirtyEight. Ballot Box USA. Finding every ballot drop off box in America and advocating their use as a viable 3rd option in this election. (A special category of absentee ballots in Oklahoma also can’t be delivered in person, but this applies to only a small fraction of voters.). And unlike election offices, drop boxes are often open 24 hours a day. Instead, the Democrat Party committed nationwide voter fraud, and still lost the election. The County Registar’s Office has asked both the FBI and the Attorney General to investigate the fire. Mail Voting (29) Ballot Box USA. Furious Democrats challenged his directive in court, and on Friday a court ruled that the state can allow counties to set up more boxes (it is unclear, however, whether the state will do so). But an increasingly common option is drop boxes in which voters can deposit their ballots. Vote By Mail (36) Once the drop box was unsealed, with smoke coming out, firefighters removed dozens of ballots. Follow Joshua Bote on Twitter: @joshua_bote. @baseballot, 2020 Election (1135 posts) Finding every ballot drop off box in America and advocating their use as a viable 3rd option in this election. Cannabis consumers aren’t couch-locked or waking and baking. Last election in 2016, Ballot Box USA made an effort to bring accountability to America’s ballot boxes. Drop box (1). Although it’s complicated in Missouri, one of the few states where there is a legal distinction between an “absentee” ballot (which requires an excuse, such as being out of town on Election Day, to cast) and a “mail” ballot (which does not). We'll Find Out In January. When we first unveiled our guide of how to vote in the 2020 election in every state, the most common question we received was, “What if I want to drop off my mail ballot in person?” Well, America, we heard you: The dashboard is now updated with information about whether you can and where to return your ballot. guide of how to vote in the 2020 election in every state, recent cutbacks at the U.S. To proponents, drop boxes are simply a more reliable delivery method given recent cutbacks at the U.S. For example, Colorado requires counties to offer at least one drop box per 30,000 registered voters, and Washington requires one drop box per 15,000 voters.) KCBS-TV said authorities including the FBI are investigating the matter as a suspected arson, and no perpetrators had been identified.. The box has since been blocked off to prevent more people from submitting ballots. BallotBox.Info is a group of non-partisans volunteering their time to provide a tool for finding and utilizing Ballot Box voting. The agency did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. In California brings you top Golden State stories and commentary from across the USA TODAY Network and beyond. Bruce Bawer is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Absentee ballots can be dropped off in person in Missouri, but mail ballots can’t. Mail Vote (5) Why Are They So Controversial? We’d like to ask you a few questions about your visit to FiveThirtyEight. Do You Buy That ... COVID-19 Was A Factor In Polls Underestimating Republican Turnout? The county also said it will increase pickups at all other drop boxes. Drop boxes are more secure than your average blue postal box, too: Many states require them to be under video surveillance or manually staffed, and they are designed to be indestructible (check out this photo of a drop box that survived a head-on collision from an SUV). We are an independent, third-party election administration firm specializing in Homeowners Associations (HOA’s) or Common Interest Developments (CID’s) We provide service to all types and sizes of HOA’s throughout California, Nevada and Arizona. It remains unclear how many ballots were affected by the fire due to burns or water damage, but Baldwin Park Mayor Manuel Lozano told KABC-TV in Los Angeles that there were around 100 in the box that were damaged. Typically, you can deliver your ballot to your local election office; at least 20 states (plus Washington, D.C.) also accept mail ballots at polling places, but a lot of states explicitly don’t, so check our guide before trying that. The term refers generally to the act of casting illegal votes or submitting more than one ballot per voter when only one ballot per voter is permitted. According to the Associated Press, there were 122 ballots inside the box when it was set on fire at around 4:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. © 2020 ABC News Internet Ventures. In the presidential election of 2016, everything worked – miraculously, but just barely. Postal Service, leaving it up to chance whether the ballot will arrive in time, Trump Probably Won’t Be The Last Politician To Reject An Election Outcome Without Evidence. A similar fight is now unfolding in Texas, where the Republican governor decreed just last week that counties could have only one drop site each — ordering counties with more than one, including Democratic strongholds like Harris and Travis counties, to close those extra sites.