DOJ: Arizona ballot drop box monitoring can amount to illegal intimidation

Julia Shapero
·1 min read
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a court filing on Monday that several Arizona groups’ monitoring of ballot drop boxes can amount to illegal voter intimidation in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

The DOJ filed a statement of interest voicing support for a recent lawsuit from the League of Women Voters of Arizona, which accused several Arizona groups of engaging in an “escalating scheme of voter intimidation and harassment.”

“Although lawful poll-watching activities can support democratic transparency and accountability, when private citizens form ‘ballot security forces’ and attempt to take over the State’s legitimate role of overseeing and policing elections, the risk of voter intimidation—and violating federal law—is significant,” the Justice Department said in the filing.

The groups — Lions of Liberty, Yavapai County Preparedness Team and Clean Elections USA — have reportedly been surveilling drop boxes while armed and in tactical gear, filming voters, posting their information or images online, and reporting them to police if they drop off more than one ballot, according to the League of Women Voters’s lawsuit.

The DOJ noted that most of these actions have previously been found to violate the Voting Rights Act, including filming and photographing voters, monitoring voting sites while armed and threatening adverse consequences like “harassment, ‘public opprobrium,’ and baseless allegations of felonious conduct.”

The department also pushed back on a recent decision in a similar case brought by the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans. A federal judge rejected the group’s request to block Clean Elections USA from observing ballot drop box locations, ruling it would infringe on their constitutional rights.

However, the DOJ argued in Monday’s filing that “the First Amendment does not protect individuals’ right to assemble to engage in voter intimidation or coercion.”

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