By now you’ve probably seen the stories about armed, military-garbed, face-masked goobers in lawn chairs hanging out by ballot boxes in the Phoenix area—not intimidating voters at all. The DOJ has opened an investigation after authorities reported several incidents of masked and armed goons in bulletproof vests following voters as they dropped off ballots, in some cases harassing voters, filming them, and taking photos of their vehicle’s license plate. When the press turned their cameras on the vigilantes, they said they were just hanging out, soaking up Vitamin D and, conveniently, their license plates were covered.
Actual real-life elected officials like Sen. (hack! hairball!) Kelly Townsend encouraged citizens to exert their god-given right to something, watch 2000 Mules, dress up in tactical gear, pack heat if you’d prefer, and camp out with other fine election defenders because (did you not know?!) not all ballot boxes are monitored by cameras 24/7! I doubt most mailboxes are monitored either (where I dropped off my ballot today), but let’s leave commonsense out of this. (Sen. Townsend later suggested maybe lawn chair vigilantes shouldn’t dress up like RoboCop.)
FLASHBACK: In the ‘60s a young Republican lawyer trolled polling places in Phoenix and questioned people who looked a little too brown. He was part of a Republican Party nationwide plan to challenge voters of color. His name was William Rehnquist, future Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. So here we are. For a majority of today’s justices, Rehnquist’s position on voting rights is probably the goal.
That’s also true of every Republican running for Arizona’s four major statewide races: Kari Lake (Governor), Blake Masters (Senator), Mark Finchem (Sec of State), Abraham Hamadeh (AG). They’re all election deniers and Jan. 6 apologists who won’t say if they’ll accept the 2022 results, nor have they said boo about the voter intimidation taking place in their state. Come to think of it, I haven’t heard McConnell or McCarthy say anything about efforts to train “poll watchers” nationwide; they’ll employ the same fascistic tactics on election day that are currently underway in Arizona.
So Monday election champion Marc Elias filed a lawsuit in an Arizona federal court to put an immediate end to the threats and intimidation, with only two weeks remaining before election day. Elias was on Rachel Maddow last night, where he said the Court has agreed to hear the case Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, the Maricopa County Sheriff said his deputies will be monitoring the locations.
Filed on behalf of the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino, the lawsuit alleges that Clean Elections USA, the group encouraging the intimidation and training the bullies, has violated several federal statues, including the 1871 KKK Act, which prohibits “conspir[ing] to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner.” It’s illegal to intimidate voters, shadowing people with guns and cameras is intimidating, end of story.
Clean Elections USA is the equivalent of Operation Eagle Eye, the Republican Party scheme in the ‘60s that recruited William Rehnquist and other bigots to harass voters of color. That toxic underbelly of racism has always been there in Arizona’s Republican Party, bubbling up in disgraces like rescinding MLK Day and the SB1070 “papers please” law—both overturned or gutted by the people.
If Kari Lake and Mark Finchem control the political and electoral universe here, citizens may not get a chance to reverse dangerous Republican measures for a long time, and they have a few in mind, beginning with making voting even harder.
Katie Hobbs for Governor, Mark Kelly for Senator, Adrian Fontes for Sec of State, Kris Mayes for AG
UPDATE: The Arizona Republic reports that a second group, Project Democracy, has filed a lawsuit against Clean Elections USA, also alleging voter intimidation. The suit, filed on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Arizona, also named Prescott-based Lions of Liberty, a far-right group of “conservative patriots” led by a former Oath Keeper.
The intent and the reasonably foreseeable effect of Defendants’ ongoing campaigns is to intimidate voters and those who will lawfully assist them in exercising their right to vote. Indeed, because of Defendants’ campaigns, Arizona voters who wish to lawfully use drop boxes must do so under threat that they will be monitored by armed vigilantes, have their faces and cars filmed, be baselessly reported to law enforcement, and have their reputations and personal safety put at risk.
Clean Elections USA is recruiting “patriots” nationwide to monitor ballot boxes and serve as poll watchers on election day. Republicans here not only don’t condemn the thuggery, they encourage it—outright or by their silence.