Group can monitor Arizona ballot drop boxes, US judge rules

Associated press via San Francisco Chronicle / sfgate.com ^ | Oct. 28, 2022 Updated: Oct. 28, 2022 7:35 p.m. | ANITA SNOW, Associated Press

[thecodont]

PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge Friday refused to bar a group from monitoring outdoor ballot boxes in Arizona’s largest county where watchers have shown up armed and in ballistic vests, saying to do so could violate the monitors' constitutional rights.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi said the case remained open and that the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans could try again to make its argument against a group calling itself Clean Elections USA. A second plantiff, Voto Latino, was removed from the case.

Liburdi concluded that “while this case certainly presents serious questions, the Court cannot craft an injunction without violating the First Amendment.” The judge is a Trump appointee and a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization.

Local and federal law enforcement have been alarmed by reports of people, including some who were masked and armed, watching 24-hour ballot boxes in Maricopa County — Arizona’s most populous county — and rural Yavapai County as midterm elections near. Some voters have complained alleging voter intimidation after people watching the boxes took photos and videos, and followed voters.

Arizona law states electioneers and monitors must remain 75-foot (23-meter) from a voting location.

[thecodont]

Forgive me but I never understood the romance and mystery of ballot drop boxes. Where I live (pre or post COVID) you could always drop your ballot off at the polling location. I know COVID nonsense made in-person voting locations fewer and farther between, but still, it wasn’t that hard.

[SPDSHDW]

Only makes sense from a fraud perspective.

Just like the Dems want us to believe it takes days to count votes, when 50-60 years ago everyone knew who won before Midnight PST That night

[cranked]

Watched 2000 Mules yet?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

They were invented to steal the 2020 election from Trump under the guise of COVID. Then they concocted the equally ridiculous “Republican voter suppression” if they weren’t allowed. The worst was that state legislatures and governors approved them in direct violation of State constitutions, without valid enacted changes to voting laws, and installed them too close to election time.

There is ZERO valid reason for them. All they do is make fraud very easy.

[jimtorr]

Even without fraud, it does take time to deal with all the provisional ballots cast these days.

IMHO, we should go back to registering 30 days before an election.

[thecodont]

Watched 2000 Mules yet?

Yes indeed.

[thecodont]

IMHO, we should go back to registering 30 days before an election.

Voting should be for the responsible, the aware, the informed, and the motivated.

No "La-Z-Boy" voting where the voter just lies back and gets spoon fed.

[thecodont]

There is ZERO valid reason for them. All they do is make fraud very easy.

My point. If you can drop off your ballot at an official polling place, there is NO NEED for a ballot drop box.

[cranked]

Was just asking. Thanks.

[V K Lee]

From the pipes of AP———
“The judge is a Trump appointee and a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization”.

Such reporting! The libs just don’t quit. Look forward to a
day when AP becomes obsolete and unread, missed only by the monkeys that line their cages
with it.

[flaglady47]

Every ballot drop box in the U.S. should be filmed and monitored 24/7. These drop boxes played an inordinate roll in the theft of the 2020 election by the corrupt Dem Party.

[nathanbedford]

Similar groups around the United States have embraced a film that has been discredited called “2000 Mules” that claims people were paid to travel among drop boxes and stuff them with fraudulent ballots during the 2020 presidential vote.

There’s no evidence for the notion that a network of Democrat-associated ballot “mules” has conspired to collect and deliver ballots to drop boxes, either in the 2020 presidential vote or in the upcoming midterm elections.

"No evidence?" No evidence of a conspiracy?

Okay, let's play the game and assume there is no evidence that "a network of Democrat- associated ballot "mules" conspired to collect and deliver ballot to drop boxes," and note that the game of the leftists just constructed is, "let's knock down strawman."

The test is not whether a conspiracy exists but whether illegal ballots were cast with or without a conspiracy. Alleging a conspiracy is but a convenient way to dismiss an otherwise valid case.

The movie itself does not allege or seek to prove a conspiracy nor does it purport to arithmetically demonstrate election fraud sufficient to overturn the election without more. The movie simply makes the prima facie case that illegal ballots might well have turned the election so the matter certainly deserves investigation.

I agree with the authors, the movie did not prove what it did not set out to prove but it certainly did prove what it purported to prove.

[Luke21]

Look forward to day when AP becomes obsolete and unread, missed only by the monkeys that line their cages
with it.

They are at the top of the scumpack.

[Nervous Tick]

“Voting should be for the responsible, the aware, the informed, and the motivated.”

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[SmokingJoe]

Some voters have complained alleging voter intimidation after people watching the boxes took photos and videos, and followed voters.

Taking photos is perfectly fine, unless the voter is committing ballot fraud.

[KC_Conspirator]

The duty of citizens, wanting free and fair elections. Affirmed. Contrary to those who want fraud and deny Americans their civil rights, such as democraps and the media. O what will we do.

[ByteMercenary]

While I concur that ballot drop boxes were used by mules to tender many fraudulent ballots, those ballots were probably only a fraction of the truckloads of boxes of ballots that showed up at 3am. IMHO the places where vote counting happens should be monitored, well-lit, and filmed 24x7. Any box of ballots that cannot produce a valid chain of custody should be unopened and set aside for probable destruction later. The individual(s) submitting those boxes should be detained and intensely interrogated.

[FLT-bird]

the only sensible ruling.

They are out in public. Nobody has a reasonable expectation of privacy when in public as courts have repeatedly held.

Also, there is a compelling state interest in ensuring election transparency. If anything, courts should always come down on the side of more election transparency rather than less. These drop boxes are supposed to be subject to video surveillance anyway. So why should private individuals not be allowed to record the comings and goings of those dropping off ballots in drop boxes if the government is supposedly already doing so?

Personally I think they should abolish drop boxes entirely or at the very least put them inside government offices such as post offices and make them available only during business hours - and continue to video anybody dropping off ballots in them.

[Hostage]

Yes, this is not about “watchers”, “armed”, with “ballistic vests” getting off with the backing of a “Trump appointed judge” as media slut Anita Snow describes for her AP pimp.

This is about the recent history of politically placed “ballot dropbox” equipment used by ballot harvesting pukes.

Election cheaters are rewriting history to describe poll station poll watching as ballot dropbox armed, dangerous white nationalist voter intimidators.