The Arizona Legislature was unable to get a bill passed this year clearly banning unmonitored absentee ballot drop boxes, so local activists are organizing schedules of volunteers to watch them, concerned after reports of unusual activity during the primary election this year. Existing law, A.R.S. 16-1005(E), prohibits absentee ballot drop boxes operated by entities other than the government, but legal disputes remain over how much the government is required to monitor them.
Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward told The Arizona Sun Times the party is working to facilitate addressing complaints from the absentee ballot drop box watchers that come in. “We are building the attorney network and the reporting structure so we can address problems as they happen,” she said. “We also have thousands of poll observers trained and we are working to make sure Maricopa County doesn’t break the law again in the general like they did in the primary.”
The Lions of Liberty, a patriot group in Yavapai County, launched “Operation: Drop Box” to place volunteers near unmonitored drop boxes in their county. State Representative Shawnna Bolick (R-Phoenix) discovered an unmonitored ballot drop box there in Skull Valley in May. James Johnson of Lions of Liberty told The Sun Times, “We are making great progress in getting volunteers to watch the drop boxes. There has been a lot of interest in the most populous cities of Yavapai County, including Prescott, Prescott Valley, and Chino Valley, and we have even seen volunteers step up in those beyond this vicinity also. Right now, we are just concentrating on Yavapai County, but we have had interest in Maricopa County and even down to Tucson. So, after this election, assuming the laws aren’t changed on ballot drop boxes, we expect this to expand.”
Johnson said although all of the ballot drop boxes in the county have cameras, some of them are only “trailcams” which are installed in such a way it would be easy for someone to walk up and deposit ballots while ducking the camera.
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times
