Friday, September 6, 2024

Ballot Drop Box Battles: States, municipalities seek to ban them as November election nears

 Ballot drop boxes, a method of voting that became more widespread during the 2020 presidential election as COVID-19 lockdowns continued, are facing a pushback in several municipalities and states ahead of the November election.

Two months out from Election Day and less than two weeks before early voting begins, states and municipalities are fighting over whether to implement ballot drop boxes, amid election integrity and practical concerns.

The city attorney also said the decision to not have the drop boxes would save city election workers valuable time and resources, since staff would not have to manage “keeping drop box chain-of-custody logs, maintaining camera surveillance, and having employees use additional security measures for the drop box.” New Berlin also decided that the one ballot drop box used in the city to be unnecessary, as well as inconvenient for staff to repeatedly empty the smaller receptacle.

“[T]his directive provides that an assistant delivering a ballot for another must sign an attestation that they comply with applicable state and federal law,” the directive states, later adding, “voter-assisted ballots must be returned inside the board office, where the voter assistant will be asked to complete the attestation form.” Two days before issuing the directive, LaRose sent a letter to GOP legislative leaders, urging them to review the state’s ban on ballot harvesting and consider eliminating ballot drop boxes.

The use of ballot drop boxes has declined each year since the 2020 election, according to election officials.

However, the County Clerks' Association of Wyoming defended using the ballot drop boxes.

"The phrase 'delivered to the clerk' allows for the use of a ballot drop box at the discretion of an individual County Clerk," Malcolm Ervin, president of the County Clerks’ Association, said in a statement in June.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/battle-over-ballot-drop-boxes-states-municipalities-seek-ban-them

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