Two of the biggest concerns I heard during hours of conversations with voters for this series was about ballot harvesting and voter intimidation. What was most interesting was hearing what people believed those terms actually meant.
Many voters heard recent comments from the President encouraging supporters to go to the polls. They complained that was voter intimidation - which (if conducted within the guidelines) could actually be the legal ability to observe the election process called poll watching. The key here being ‘if conducted within the guidelines.’
Conversely, many didn’t know that ballot harvesting was legal and those same voters may be surprised to learn that many election officials don’t like the law either. That 2016 California law allows anybody to collect an unlimited number of ballots, drop them off within three days and get paid for it - though not per ballot.
Part IV of this series takes these concerns to the election, academic and law enforcement officials to learn the rules of ballot harvesting and the boundaries that separate poll watching from voter intimidation.
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