Voters in Arizona election reported harassment by poll watchers
Time to Read: 2 minute
The complaints detail that the voters were followed, filmed by the observers and that they were insulted
A voter in Maricopa County, Arizona, reported that a group of people looking at a ballot box photographed and followed the voter and his wife after they deposited their ballots in the ballot box, accusing them of being “mules”.
The voter, who chose to cast his ballot early for the November election, filed a complaint with the Arizona secretary of state, who forwarded it to the Department of Justice and the Arizona attorney general's office for investigation, Sophia Solis reported., spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office.
The incident allegedly occurred in an outdoor mailbox in Mesa, Arizona, on the night of October 17. Early voting, both in person and by mail, began on October 12 in Arizona.
“There is a group of people hanging out near the urn filming and photographing my wife and I as we walked up to the urn and they accused us of being a mule. They took pictures [sic] of our license plate and us and then followed us to the parking lot in one of their cars and continued filming,” the voter wrote in the complaint.
In Arizona, voters can only return ballots for themselves, people in their households or families, or people they care for. Other states do not prohibit so-called ballot harvesting. The practice became illegal in Arizona in 2016.
The incident comes as people in Maricopa and Yavapai counties began monitoring mailboxes, prompted by the documentary “2000 Mules,” which makes unsubstantiated claims that “mules” stuffed ballot boxes in the election. 2020.
The documentary directed by conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza claims it can prove widespread fraud took place during the 2020 US presidential election, due to 2,000 people or “mules” casting hundreds of votes that made Trump lost the elections, which is false.
Similar efforts are underway in other states to monitor mailboxes, organized by people who remain convinced the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
The Maricopa mailboxes are already under video surveillance by the county and live streamed on the county's website, and the Yavapai mailboxes have cameras mounted on them.
Election officials and voter advocacy groups have warned that the practice could lead to voter intimidation.
The incident reported by the Secretary of State is not isolated. On Wednesday, a group of people from Clean Elections USA, an organization that promotes debunked conspiracy theories about voter fraud, photographed poll workers and voters outside the Maricopa County election headquarters, prompting a reprimand from the president of the county board of supervisors, according to The Arizona Republic.