With only two weeks remaining before the midterm elections, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida, among others, have seen a surge of early voters in their districts.
On Friday, the Arizona Maricopa County Elections Department reported that they had seen two mask-wearing people in tactical gear lurking near a ballot drop box. A day after, the number increased to four. Two of them were said to have guns.
A statement from the Maricopa County Elections Department said: “We are deeply concerned about the safety of individuals who are exercising their constitutional right to vote and who are lawfully taking their early ballot to a drop box.”
These individuals were not standing there just for the fun of it. These so-called “armed vigilantes” were also taking videos of the voters’ car license plates. One woman said that when they took a video of her car, she attempted to take a photo of their vehicles but she was pushed and grabbed by them. “I just felt fair is fair — they’re videotaping voters’ license plates, so I didn’t think it was really a big deal to photograph theirs,” she said.
According to the FBI, among the states, Arizona is said to rank high among states with the most number of threats against election workers. As the person in charge of registration and early voting count, Stephen Richer said that he has witnessed harassment, both physical and online.
There was no evidence of any significant voter fraud in Arizona in 2020 or any other recent election in Arizona. Early voting and ballot drop boxes are legal. There’s no justification for vigilantes who intimidate and harass Americans doing their civic duty.
Poll watchers, who are supposed to follow specific rules and undergo training, have always been part of the elections. But recent events have encouraged more people to work as poll watchers, specifically, the election fraud accusations by Trump and his supporters.
There was a recent case of voter intimidation in the district when a group approached a voter who was about to cast a vote. Election officials want to reassure residents that they will be doing their job to protect voters, ensure fair elections, and that voters should feel safe when casting their ballots.
