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San Bernardino County says its vote-by-mail drop boxes are secure, despite concerns raised by the San Bernardino County Republican Party.

The county follows strict physical security and cybersecurity requirements for all voting technology, county spokeswoman Felisa Cardona wrote in an email, “all of which meet or exceed federal guidance including that of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Election Assistance Commission.”

California law requires vote-by-mail drop boxes to be monitored by cameras, where “feasible.” But according to a survey by the county Republican Party, more than half of the boxes are not on camera.

“I do not believe we can trust our election,” said Cathy Lara, the director of election integrity for the San Bernardino County GOP.

As of Sept. 19, the county GOP has surveyed 38 of the county’s 78 ballot drop boxes. According to Chino resident Robert Tormey, who surveyed the locations, 21 of the 38, or 57%, of the locations have no cameras on them.

Under California law, drop boxes are supposed to be monitored where it’s realistic to do so.

“If feasible, drop boxes shall be monitored by a video security surveillance system, or an internal camera that can capture digital images and/or video,” California Code of Regulations, Article 1, Section 20135, reads in part. “A video security surveillance system can include existing systems on county, city, or private buildings.”

The legal definition of “feasible,” according to Black’s Law Dictionary, is “reasonably capable of being completed or accomplished.”

The county says its drop boxes are in compliance with state law.

“While there is no legal requirement for security cameras at each outdoor mail ballot drop box, it was our intention to strategically place as many drop boxes where they were visible to pre-existing video surveillance systems,” Cardona wrote. “Many of our locations have video surveillance the Registrar of Voters or local law enforcement can request when needed.”

According to Cardona, the county considers multiple criteria for drop box placement:

At Upland City Hall, the ballot drop box is one of five in a drive-thru lane in the parking lot. The others are for library books and utility bills. There are cameras at City Hall, the city library and a nearby fire station, but each is more than 100 feet away from the boxes and none appear to be directly pointed at them. There’s a second ballot drop box located inside City Hall.

Tormey, standing in front of Upland City Hall on a recent visit, pointed to a trash can underneath a security camera.

“That trash can could have been moved over and they could have dropped the box right here,” he said.

Across the plaza, an identical trash can was set up under a security camera in front of the city library.

“I saw those opportunities everywhere I went. It’s easily ‘feasible’ ” to place the drop boxes in the line of sight of a camera, he said.

According to Cardona, the drop box locations at Upland City Hall were chosen with input from the public.

“The decisions regarding the placement were based on available locations at the time and accessibility considerations,” she wrote. “We solicited public input for these locations during a public viewing period.”

Tormey’s data indicates there are no cameras at some or all of the drop box locations in Big Bear Lake, Chino, Colton, Grand Terrace, Loma Linda, Montclair, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Rialto, Running Springs, San Bernardino and Upland.

The county is looking into the matter, according to Melissa Eickman, spokesperson for the Registrar of Voters office.

“The county is in the process of confirming existing video surveillance at all current mail ballot drop box locations,” she wrote in an email. “Once this review is complete, the county will evaluate options to increase the number of locations with video surveillance.”

Lara says the lack of video surveillance poses a threat to the security of the 2022 election.

“It is set up for fraud,” Lara said. She believes those who wanted to manipulate the results of the election will be emboldened by what she and Tormey see as a lack of security for the ballot drop boxes.

The security of the 2020 election was raised by former President Donald Trump months ahead of voting and the rhetoric increased following his loss that year. The week after the election, the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency declared the November 2020 election “the most secure in American history,” and said there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

Election security is the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters’ “highest priority,” according to Cardona.

“There is no evidence of voter fraud or mishandling of ballots in 2016 or 2020,” she wrote. “Complaints of alleged fraud received by ROV are taken seriously and ROV works with corresponding investigative agencies on a case-by-case basis that can include the Secretary of State, the County’s District Attorney’s Office, and the U.S. Postal Service.”

The county also follows strict chain-of-custody requirements mandated by the state, according to Cardona.

An upcoming “Journey of the Ballot” program is intended to help San Bernardino County voters understand the measures the county is taking to protect the security of a ballot once it’s cast and the integrity of the election. Residents are also invited to observe the vote-handling and counting process at the Registrar’s Office in San Bernardino.

For her part, Lara hopes to meet with Sheriff Shannon Dicus to discuss the issue in the coming days.

Across the state, ballot drop boxes are being surveyed by volunteers working with New California State, a group intending to split California in half. One state would include the higher population urban communities of the Bay Area, Los Angeles basin and Sacramento, and one state for everyone else.

Volunteers are seeing something similar to what the San Bernardino County GOP has found, said Paul Preston, founder of New California State.

“Most ballot boxes that we’ve seen, that we’ve examined, don’t have any cameras on them,” he said.

During the 2020 election cycle, some experts wondered if politicians and commentators saying Republican votes ultimately wouldn’t matter due to fraud would end up lowering turnout.

Lara — who advises voters to vote in person, rather than by using mail-in ballots — says Republicans can’t fall prey to that kind of thinking.

“We still have to get out there and show our numbers,” she said.

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