Friday 28 October 2022 10:49 PM Judge says groups CAN monitor voting drop boxes in Arizona despite fears of ... trends now
A federal judge Friday refused to bar an activist group from monitoring outdoor ballot boxes in Arizona's largest county, despite fears of voter intimidation saying that to do so could violate the its constitutional rights.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi issued the ruling on Friday.
The issue has taken on national prominence amid reports of armed men patrolling outdoor drop boxes in Maricopa County - the state's most's most populous county — and rural Yavapai County as midterm elections near.
Last week, apparently armed men positioned themselves close to a drop box in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix. They wore tactical gear which reportedly included ballistic vests.
They left when police arrived.
But their presence triggered legal action as activists sought to prevent intimidation of voters.
Aziona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, has called on voters to immediately report any intimidation to police and file a complaint with his office.
The state's secretary of state this week said her office had received six cases of potential voter intimidation to the state attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as a threatening email sent to the state elections director.
A handout photo by Maricopa County Elections shows two armed individuals dressed in tactical gear watching a drop box in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona
Their presence triggered a string of complaints and a legal effort to bar watcher groups
State law requires candidates, their campaigns and monitors to stay at least 75 feet from voting locations.
'Plaintiffs have not provided the court with any evidence that defendants' conduct constitutes a true threat,' the judge wrote.
'On this record, defendants have not made any statements threatening to commit acts of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals."
The state is one of the centers of tussles over voter rights and election fraud.
President Joe Biden won the divided state by only 10,000 votes, ending a run of decades of Republican victories.
The result generated a string of conspiracy theories about how it could have happened.
But multiple investigations, including a partisan 'audit' of Maricopa County by Cyber Ninjas, a company hired by Republicans, found no widespread fraud in the 2020 vote.
