SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY – The San Joaquin County Board of Elections wants fewer ballot drop boxes. The more there are, the greater the risk of fraud, they say.
San Joaquin County has 25 absentee ballot drop boxes. However, the state only requires 13. The county’s Board of Elections asked the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors to remove 12 of them to meet this minimum requirement, but that proposal was rejected.
“You have to monitor them with cameras, all of which incurs costs. You have to locate them. You have to buy them,” said county election consultant chairman Antonio Amador.
The Elections Advisory Board wants to halve the number of mail-in ballot drop boxes countywide. The board says only 13 are needed to meet state requirements. The current number of mail-in ballot drop boxes is 25, due in part to COVID rules when social distancing had to be observed while voting. The Elections Advisory Board says many of those are no longer needed.
“Cameras and surveillance. We had problems with that. It wasn’t really successful and for security reasons it wasn’t possible to monitor those things. So we thought we’d do the minimum, that’s all we need,” Amador said.
“Who will take care of them? Where will they be?” asked county resident Genevieve Macias.
The additional costs and risk of fraud are reasons why the Board of Elections submitted a proposal to the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors to reduce the number of ballot boxes. Last Tuesday, the board voted to keep the ballot boxes, rejecting the Board of Elections’ request. But not everyone is happy with their decision.
“We have polling places, we have mail-in voting, we have all kinds of things that make it easier for people to vote, and I don’t understand why they need so many accommodations to do that,” Marilyn said.
Another idea expressed in the request was to place the boxes at fire and police stations.
“I think if you were a bad guy, people would be hesitant to put illegally obtained ballots in the mailboxes of a police station or a fire station,” Amador said.
“Instead of going there, I could go to the box, yes. If it is available everywhere and I don’t have to go to the fire station, yes,” said Shakeeb Meherzad.
Meherzad said he does not have a car and reducing ballot boxes would be inconvenient and would discourage people from voting if they do not have easy access. He also said the additional cost should not be a factor when it comes to something as important as voting.
“If the election is about the people, the people should bear the costs, you know. I think people should be paid extra to vote. And not every day, just every now and then,” Meherzad said.
CBS13 was unable to reach a supervisor to discuss his decision prior to publication of this article.
