Glossary
Ballot collection ('harvesting')
Returning other voters' completed ballots — legal in California under AB 1921 (2016, in force from 2017) for any person the voter designates, with per-ballot payment banned.
Supporters call it ballot collection or return assistance; critics call it harvesting. Between 1987 and 2016, campaign workers were prohibited returners. Nobody measures how many ballots are returned this way — the state does not collect that data.
Where this term appears
- By 2019 both parties treated ballot collection as an organizational capability worth…Claim
- Opponents warned in 2016 that organized ballot collection would follow.Claim
- Two years after AB 1921, a consultant described ballot collection as a standard…Claim
- Published studies find that mail voting itself gives neither party a meaningful advantage.Claim
- From 2002, any Californian could sign up once and automatically get a mail ballot every…Claim
- In 1982 a court said campaign mailing of collected ballots was allowed without proof of…Claim
- The best causal study of universal mail voting found it helps turnout a little and helps…Claim
- Absentee voting no longer requires an excuseTimeline step
- A second, independent research team reached the same answer with different data: mail…Claim
- The personal-delivery rule quietly disappearsTimeline step
- Ballot collection / return assistanceCampaign operation