Recently, unofficial ballot boxes have landed around Orange County and residents are placing their ballots in them.

California’s Republican party admitted to placing unofficial ballot boxes around several counties, including Orange County.

Secretary of State, Alex Padilla, already declared this act illegal but Republicans are arguing that the ballot boxes are permissible.

Council member of Fullerton, Jesus Silva, explained that the city is currently at a halt with this situation.

Silva stated that the unofficial ballot boxes have not been removed and the city does not know when they will be.

Silva reassured that although there were unofficial ballot boxes that turned up in Orange County, none were actually placed in Fullerton.

What does that mean for the ballots that were turned in to the boxes?

As of now, nothing is known. Silva explained that “normally people have to have an authorized signature for someone else to turn in their ballot for them, so we don’t know what’s going to happen to the ones in the ballot boxes.”

This leaves an uncertainty with and if, any ballots were turned into the unofficial ballot boxes.

Will their ballots be returned so that voters can turn them in themselves again to official ballot boxes? Will their ballots be counted?

This situation can make voters feel uneasy about mailing in their ballot or dropping it off at an official ballot box.

Former CSUF student, Jonathon Gomez described his frustration with the unofficial ballot boxes that landed in Orange County.

Gomez stated that Fullerton and Orange County need to work together to figure something out soon, especially being so close to the election.

At this point, Gomez faces the reality of having to vote in person, if nothing is done immediately.

In the middle of a pandemic, voting in person isn’t the ideal or most convenient choice for everyone.

Silva also stated that an influence that’s keeping them from removing the unofficial ballots immediately, is the backlash they may receive from Republicans or people who agree with the ballot boxes.

“The thing is, is that we have to take into consideration how people will react if we were to remove them because we will receive backlash and that’s something we want to try and avoid,” Silva explained.

Gomez explained that the backlash from both parties is something they have and will receive, regardless of what party it may be.

When asked what Fullerton city officials would do to prevent a situation like this from happening again, Silva stated that because this is a situation that’s never been dealt with before, they cannot give a definite plan as to what will be done if this were to happen again.

Silva did reassure that official ballot boxes are distinguishable from the unofficial ones because the official ones carry a county election logo on them.

“Until we receive word from Neal Kelley, there is, unfortunately, nothing we can do at the moment,” stated Silva.