US Election 2022: Am I allowed to deliver someone else’s ballot?

• Am I allowed to deliver someone else’s ballot?
• In most states, the answer is yes.
• There may be restrictions.

US Elections 2022. Am I allowed to deliver someone else’s ballot? In most states, the answer is yes, but there may be restrictions. For example, in some states, such as Arizona, they only allow caregivers, family members, or household members to cast someone else’s ballot. Other states, like California, allow the ballot to be turned in by anyone chosen by the voter as long as they do not receive a payment for the ballots they collect.

According to The Associated Press, some states require designated persons to sign a document confirming that they have the authority to cast someone else’s ballot. A few states explicitly prohibit casting someone else’s ballot. Others have no law about it.

Election 2022: More than half of the states have laws that explicitly allow a third party to deliver a completed ballot

In total, more than half of the states have laws that explicitly allow a third party to deliver a completed ballot, according to a tally by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Laws that allow for ballot collection are designed to make voting more convenient, and for people who cannot get around or drop off a ballot on their own.

Political groups and campaigns from both parties have run ballot collection programs with the goal of increasing turnout and helping older, homebound, disabled, or rural voters send their ballots back (Filed As: 2022 US Elections : am I allowed to deliver someone else’s ballot?)

This practice has been criticized in the past

However, in 2020, when the use of drop boxes skyrocketed due to the Covid pandemic, some criticized the practice. Former President Donald Trump and others argued that this practice often pejoratively called “ballot harvesting,” increased the risk that someone would try to illegally vote for another person or pressure them to vote in a certain way.

Polling after the 2020 election found that those who voted for President Biden were more likely to report voting by mail than those who voted for Trump. Election security experts say voter fraud is rare among all forms of voting, including voting by mail and at drop boxes. They point to a 2018 North Carolina congressional election, when a Republican political operative and his staff illegally collected ballots and forged signatures, as one of the few cases of voter fraud related to ballot harvesting. That election was overturned. (Filed Under: 2022 US Elections: Am I Allowed to Deliver Anyone Else’s Ballot?)

Discredited film claimed that people were paid to illegally collect and deliver ballots in five states

After the 2020 election, a discredited film claimed without evidence that a multi-state network of Democrat-aligned voting “mules” was paid to illegally collect and deliver ballots in five states. But the film, called 2,000 Mules, did not present evidence that the individuals it showed on surveillance tape were part of a voting conspiracy, and a state investigation found that at least one person in the film legally turned in ballots of his family members.

The film also took aim at cell phone geolocation data, which experts say is not accurate enough to identify whether someone used a secure voting drop box or simply walked by. Drop boxes are often intentionally placed in high-traffic, public spaces. (Filed Under: 2022 US Elections: Am I Allowed To Drop Off Someone Else’s Ballot?)