Over the last few weeks, Arizona’s secretary of state has received several complaints from voters who claim that individuals, sometimes armed and disguised, took photos and videos of them as they deposited their ballots in drop boxes. Citing these reports and others, voting rights groups have gone to federal court trying to shut down the surveillance efforts, arguing they would intimidate voters.
Steven Martin arrived at an early voting location not to cast his own ballot, but to do something else: see if anyone else was there to intimidate someone else casting theirs.
“I was going to film some filmers,” said Martin, a retiree from Scottsdale.
Not long after, Brian Curry, a semi-retired Phoenix man who delivers with GrubHub, stopped by to hand out Chips Ahoy cookies to poll volunteers and keep an eye on voters. “I think our democracy is in peril,” he said. “I’ve never thought that before.”
There wasn’t much to film, or keep an eye on, during this quiet Tuesday afternoon at Indian School Park, save for voters trickling in and out of the poll center and volunteers chatting outside. The same was almost certainly true for dozens of other voting locations throughout Maricopa County, home to 2.5 million Arizona voters, where the vast majority of early votes in a busy election season are being cast without incident.
The First Amendment “does not protect individuals’ right to assemble to engage in voter intimidation or coercion,”
But how about if they’re “assembled” AND “exercising their 2nd Amendment rights” by threatening voters? That’s TWO separate rights! And all they’re “obstructing” is the one “right to vote”, which as everybody in the Qpublican Party knows doesn’t even exist!
In all seriousness, with opinions sought particularly from those who live there, what is going on in Arizona? I’ve always had a fondness for Arizona, and know it has a long conservative lean. But following moderation in recent decades, and progress in many areas, it now seems to be slipping (avalanching?) into a kind of political madness.
I’ve had a sense all year this may be the election that tips it to the dark side, like Florida and NC have in recent election cycles. Current news and polling doesn’t support the idea that voters are willing to reject the extremists openly touting their eagerness to ratchet up manipulation and division if they assume the reins of power.
The notion that people who show up at a polling place, who are armed with automatic rifles, wearing bullet-proof vests, and covering their faces with hoods so they can’t be recognized is somehow permissible as a part of the democratic process is simply irrational.
How any judge, appointed by either party, can find that this is not an act of intimidation is stretching logic well past the breaking point. Any judge that thinks this behavior is legitimate political activity, regardless of the contortions of logic they use, should be removed immediately.
While voters worry about the economy and caste their ballot for GOP candidates, they need to ask themselves: is this the America they want for their children, grandchildren and themselves? We are looking more and more like a 3rd World Country.
28th Amendment: An unencumbered voting process being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to enact mail-in balloting shall not be infringed.
