California GOP Says It Will Not Comply With Order To Remove Unauthorized Ballot Boxes

The California Republican Party said Wednesday it will not comply with the state’s cease-and-desist order over unofficial ballot drop boxes which have made their way into at least four counties across the state.

“Ballot harvesting program will continue,” California Republican Party spokesman Hector Barajas told CNN in a statement defending the boxes which have been found in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and Fresno.

In spite of the cease and desist order, Barajas said Wednesday that the party may expand the program.

“We’re going to continue this program,” Barajas told CNN affiliate KABC in an interview. “If you want to take us to court, then we’ll see you in court.”

The comments appeared to echo a message from Trump who tweeted a day earlier that his party should fight the order. 

“You mean only Democrats are allowed to do this? But haven’t the Dems been doing this for years? See you in court. Fight hard Republicans!” Trump tweeted Tuesday night after railing for months without evidence against what he has repeatedly called widespread “fraudulent” mail-in voting.

In a letter to the California Secretary of State on Wednesday attorneys for the state’s Republican Party said all of the ballot boxes dispatched by the party were indoors and staffed by volunteers or party officials. The letter also said that the unauthorized boxes were secure and not labeled “official.”

Images of the ballot boxes have shown that the unofficial boxes are labeled as “official,” but the state GOP contends in the letter that it had not authorized the term to be used and that the labels had been removed. 

“The California Republican Party did not promote, or authorize the promotion of, the secure boxes as ‘official mail drop boxes,'” the letter states. “When we learned that a sign using the word ‘official’ was used in some locations on Saturday, October, 10, 2020, we corrected that error immediately and within hours.”

A spokesperson for California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) told CNN that Padilla’s office reviewing the GOP response letter.

During a CNN interview on Monday, Padilla called the drop boxes “fake” telling CNN’s Chris Cuomo that the move was wrong regardless of which party was dispatching the unauthorized boxes.

“We don’t have the requirements or regulations for these fake drop boxes as you do for the official drop boxes,” Padilla said adding that voters should instead be directed to official drop boxes which meet all state requirements. 

Secure drop boxes that are state-sanctioned and monitored — have been widely promoted by voting rights advocates, including in California, where official boxes are widely accessible.

Outside of California, Republican officials have sung a different tune, moving to limit access to authorized drop boxes in states like Texas and Pennsylvania.  On Friday, a federal appeals court temporarily reinstated limits on the expansion of ballot drop boxes in Ohio, suggesting “the State cannot be faulted for these voters’ choice to not take advantage of the other avenues available to them to cast their ballot.”

Obama: Trump Glommed Onto Birtherism As An Attention-Seeking Schtick

Former President Barack Obama asserted on Wednesday that President Donald Trump had led the charge on the racist “birther” movement in 2011 merely for the sake of self-promotion, given how he had publicly complimented Obama several times beforehand.

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Report: Trump Advisers Gave GOP Donors Leg Up On COVID’s Economic Toll

Top White House economic advisers briefed a group of majority Republican donors in February about the genuine threat of COVID-19 and its perceived impact on the economy, while President Donald Trump was firing off tweets that suggested the opposite — that the coronavirus pandemic was “very much under control,” in the United States and that the stock market was “starting to look very good to me!” 

According to a document describing the private sessions obtained by the New York Times, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, told Republican donors in a private board meeting with the Hoover Institute that the virus was “contained in the U.S., to date, but now we just don’t know.”  The stark assessment came hours after Kudlow painted a much rosier picture during a CNBC interview, saying that the coronavirus was contained in the United States, adding: “it’s pretty close to airtight.”

The document was authored by hedge fund consultant William Callanan who attended the private briefing of Hoover’s board long before the public was informed of impending economic storms amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Per the Times, Callanan’s apparent overarching message in the memo pointed at a potentially crippling virus outbreak in the United States, and suggested that government officials were more aware of the threat than they stated publicly. It provided members of the investment world the advantage of a more honest look at what turned out to be a bleak financial future amid a ravaged COVID-19 economy.

According to the Times, the document reveals how Trump aides appeared to be giving wealthy Republican donors an advanced warning about the anticipated economic damage of COVID-19 at a time when Trump was telling Americans in public that coronavirus was nonthreatening.

The Times conducted interviews with eight sources who received copies of Callanan’s memo and several investors confirmed that the document provided elite traders access to information from the administration that helped them secure a financial edge just before global markets plunged. 

“Short everything,” one investor told the Times, using the Wall Street term for betting  stock prices soon dropping. At least two investors told the Times that the information helped boost profits and that advanced knowledge of the pandemic’s effects encouraged them to stock up on what became scarce household essentials.

When later asked about what Callanan described as his conflicting messages on the reality of the pandemic, Kudlow told the Times that he did not see conflict in the messages he provided publicly on CNBC and in the Hoover board meeting, even suggesting they were essentially the same. “There was never any intent on my part to misinform,” he said.

Biden Breaks Monthly Fundraising Record Again With Jaw-Dropping $383 Million

Democratic candidate Joe Biden announced on Wednesday night that he had raised $383 million last month, shattering his previous record in August.

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Fauci Warns Against Letting Guard Down On COVID Just Because Trump Resumed Campaigning

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday warned the public against letting their guard down on COVID-19, despite President Trump’s return to the campaign trail as the country records more than 215,000 fatalities from the pandemic thus far. Continue reading “Fauci Warns Against Letting Guard Down On COVID Just Because Trump Resumed Campaigning”

Senators Get Second Bite At The Apple During Day 2 Of Barrett Questioning

On Wednesday, senators get a second chance to press Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett during another questioning round. Yesterday, Democrats spent their time highlighting the deeply-held rights that would be at risk with a Justice Barrett: health care coverage under the ACA, LGBTQ protections, access to legal abortions.

Republicans, seeing their 45-year effort to secure a conservative majority coming to fruition before their eyes, seem to know that Barrett is a lock. So their priority is to limit the political price Democrats are trying to exact for the rush confirmation job. So far, they’ve tried to do that by pretending that the Supreme Court, and Barrett, are “non-political entities” and that we have no way of knowing how she’ll rule from the bench.

Follow along with the hearing below.

GOP Governor Makes Clear He Won’t Back Trump Weeks Before Election Day

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) announced on Wednesday that he will not vote for President Trump in next month’s presidential election. Continue reading “GOP Governor Makes Clear He Won’t Back Trump Weeks Before Election Day”

First Lady Announces That Son Barron Had Tested Positive For COVID-19

First lady Melania Trump announced in a statement on Wednesday that in addition to her and President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis, their son Barron contracted the novel coronavirus as well. Continue reading “First Lady Announces That Son Barron Had Tested Positive For COVID-19”

Catch Up On The Head-Spinning Details Of The South Dakota AG’s Car Crash That You Might’ve Missed

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and South Dakota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Secretary Craig Price gave an update Tuesday afternoon regarding the investigation into state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s fatal car crash with a pedestrian last month. But you’d be forgiven for missing it or even letting the whole scandal itself slip under your radar given the brouhaha over President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis, his continued efforts to sow misinformation about the virus, his rowdy debate performance, and so on and so forth.

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