The Justice Department filed what is known as a statement of interest in an ongoing court case in Arizona from the state’s arm of the League of Women Voters challenging far-right groups that have launched efforts to surveil drop boxes for mail-in ballots.
The department challenged the efforts for likely violating the federal Voting Rights Act, in authorities’ telling. “When private citizens form ‘ballot security forces’ and attempt to take over the State’s legitimate role of overseeing and policing elections, the risk of voter intimidation — and violating federal law — is significant,” authorities remarked. (It’s also dangerous.) “Video recording or photographing voters during the voting process has long been recognized to raise particularly acute concerns,” the department added in court.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud perpetrated through these drop boxes, but conspiracy theorists — with equipment including firearms and tactical gear — have shown up outside of the boxes, which are already carefully secured. Individuals involved in the efforts have taken photos and video of voters delivering their ballots. It’s not difficult to imagine how even a brief confrontation with an armed, tactical gear-wearing believer in long fully discredited conspiracy theories about a non-existent nationwide plot to rig elections could easily escalate. Imagine being watched by armed men who openly support Republicans while dropping off a ballot. That’s not a welcoming environment! Local officials are among those expressing concern.
“To have folks standing outside of drop boxes, armed in tactical gear, with body armor, that is unprecedented,” Bill Gates, who chairs the GOP-led county board in Maricopa County, said. Maricopa is one of the jurisdictions where vigilantes have appeared. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is also the Democratic pick for governor on the ballot in Arizona this year, has also gotten involved. Last month, she referred a case of voter intimidation arising from one of the drop box surveillance operations to the U.S. Department of Justice. In a separate case from the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, federal Judge Michael Liburdi opted last week to allow the drop box surveillance efforts to continue on the grounds of free speech protections. “While the First Amendment protects expressive conduct and peaceable assembly generally, it affords no protection for threats of harm directed at voters,” the Justice Department filing said.
The document didn’t push for a precise course of action. Instead, it outlined the federal position in a dispute in which the U.S. government has an interest. There was a hearing in the case scheduled for Tuesday, with the League of Women Voters of Arizona pushing for a court order stopping those involved — evidently including the Arizona arm of the Oath Keepers and Clean Elections USA — from continuing with the operation. A third group abandoned the effort and was dropped from the case after its filing. Concern about drop boxes traces in part back to “2000 Mules,” a far-right propaganda film with connections to a group called True the Vote and right-wing extremist Dinesh D’Souza, a Trump ally. Arizona state Attorney General Mark Brnovich referred True the Vote for federal investigation after the group became ensnared in only increasingly complicated lies. The organization claimed to both Brnovich’s office and a local FBI team that they provided relevant evidence to the other. Surprise! Neither were actually provided such evidence.
