Trump urges California GOP to 'fight hard’ for unofficial ballot boxes

US President Donald Trump has called on California Republican officials to “fight hard” after the state's top election and law enforcement officials ordered the party to remove unofficial “drop boxes” from around the state.

In support of California's Republican Party's use of unauthorized ballot drop boxes, incorrectly labeled as “official,” Trump said in a Twitter message on Wednesday, "Fight hard Republicans.”

“They [Democrats] have been taking advantage of the system for years!” Trump said

His remarks came after top California officials sent the party a cease-and-desist notice, as they were doubling down on the use of unauthorized ballot drop boxes.

As California is relying heavily on mail balloting this year — due to the coronavirus pandemic — its 58 counties have placed many more official drop boxes at various locations, from supermarkets to elections offices.

Republican unauthorized boxes surfaced at the party's friendly venues such as gun shops and churches.

Governor Gavin Newsom accused the state’s Republicans of being “willing to lie, cheat and threaten our democracy all for the sake of gaining power.”

A spokesman for the state GOP, Hector Barajas, defended the use of unauthorized ballot boxes, calling them legal.

"If Democrats are so concerned with ballot harvesting, they are the ones who wrote the legislation, votes for it, and Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law," Barajas said a statement, adding, the "Democrat anger is overblown."

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Republicans argued that their use of unofficial ballot boxes are another version of “vote harvesting," which is legal in California.

The law allows party volunteers to collect multiple ballots and deliver them to election officials.

"Screw you! You created the law, we’re going to ballot harvest,” said California Republican representative Devin Nunes.

Other Republican Party officials also defended the move on Tuesday, saying that the GOP is “doing nothing illegal.”

“The whole ballot harvesting law is purposely designed very loosely so the Democrats can cheat, which they are doing in large numbers,” said Fresno County Republican Chair Fred Vanderhoof.

“They [Democrats] can do ballot harvesting, but we can’t. That’s what they’re saying. So they’re hypocritical,” he added.

Vanderhoof reportedly set up the boxes in 12 different locations.

Trump has formerly welcomed a court ruling in Pennsylvania limiting third-party ballot collection while decrying the law as "the atrocious Ballot Harvesting Scam."

The president has repeatedly cast doubt on mail voting, claiming that mail-in ballots lead to mass voter fraud.

But experts believe that by escalating his ongoing attack on mail-in ballots, Trump was seeding the ground to contest the election as "rigged or fraudulent” in the event of losing the election, and push the country into chaos.

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