How MAGA Election Watchers Are Scaring Away Voters

People with guns standing watch at ballot boxes. Voters being filmed or harassed as they go to cast their ballot. They're images reminiscent of life under an authoritarian regime, not a reflection of modern-day America.

Nonetheless, local and federal law enforcement in Arizona have been alarmed by recent reports of people, some of them armed, watching 24-hour ballot drop boxes in two of the state's counties. This has raised concerns about voter intimidation by MAGA-linked groups during the midterm elections.

So how worried should voters be? Newsweek has spoken to election experts and their message is: Don't be intimidated. While expressing serious concern over the reports, they are urging voters not to let "a small faction of extremists" scare them away from exercising their democratic rights—and warn that exaggerating the problem may be playing into the hands of those who want to discredit midterms results.

Voter Intimidation in Arizona

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democratic candidate for governor, said on October 24 that her office had referred six cases of potential voter intimidation to the state attorney general and the Justice Department for further investigation, along with a threatening email sent to the state elections director.

Sheriff's deputies have been providing security around two outdoor drop boxes in Maricopa County, Arizona's most populous, after two people carrying guns and wearing bulletproof vests showed up at a box in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix. There were also reports of similar incidents of alleged voter intimidation in Yavapai County.

On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered members of a group called Clean Elections USA to stay at least 250 feet away from ballot drop boxes. The judge, Michael Liburdi, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, also barred the group or anyone working with them from filming voters, openly carrying firearms, posting information about voters online or making false statements about election laws.

This came after the League of Women Voters of Arizona filed a lawsuit, alleging Clean Elections USA and other organizations had planned "widespread campaigns to surveil, intimidate, and harass Arizona voters at ballot drop boxes" and "baselessly accuse them" of committing voter fraud. Attorneys for Clean Elections USA did not respond to a request for comment. The groups says on its website that it wants to "safeguard our elections with a legal presence at every ballot box in each and every state that has them."

Other groups known as the Lions of Liberty and the Yavapai County Preparedness team, linked with the far-right anti-government group Oath Keepers, were dismissed from the case on Monday after they said they would stand down their operations.

The Justice Department weighed in on Monday, with attorneys writing in a filing that the allegations "raise serious concerns of voter intimidation" and that "vigilante ballot security efforts" likely violate the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Voting rights advocates told Newsweek that such tactics are an effort by far-right groups to stop people from voting in the midterm elections, but they stressed that it is far from a nationwide problem. They say extensive coverage in local and national media has blown the situation out of proportion and could deter people from turning out to vote as a result.

'Small Faction of Extremists'

It's "a small faction of extremists" that "are trying to scare voters away from ballot boxes," Alex Gulotta, the Arizona director of the nonprofit All Voting is Local, told Newsweek.

"They're trying to have an outsized influence and in some ways, they're getting an outsized influence, because we're elevating that," he said.

Gulotta said that while the efforts were "clearly designed to intimidate," it has not stopped about half a million people voting in Maricopa County "without intimidation."

"We want people to be able to exercise their right to vote and what these people want to do is create fear that that is not going to be possible," he said. "Giving them an outsized voice is not a good thing."

Suzanne Almeida, the director of state operations at nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause, agreed. "It's obviously something we're concerned about. Everyone has the right to vote free from intimidation [...] but this isn't a national wave of people who are armed at ballot boxes," Almeida told Newsweek.

"As we are talking about it, if we are thinking there are armed people at drop boxes everywhere, it's going to make it less likely for voters to vote," she said. That is "doing the job of the folks who want to be intimidating for them."

Melody Jennings, the QAnon-linked founder of Clean Elections USA, has said she was inspired to launch an effort to monitor ballot drop boxes across the county by a widely discredited film called 2000 Mules that claimed the boxes were stuffed with fraudulent ballots during the 2020 election.

The film was promoted by Trump to support his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him and other Republicans, including Kari Lake, the GOP nominee for governor in Arizona.

Aneesa McMillan, the deputy executive director of Priorities USA, a Democratic super PAC, placed blame on Republicans like Lake for continuing to amplify Trump's false claims. Lake's campaign has been contacted for comment.

"We have national high-profile leaders in the Republican Party, that are spreading conspiracy theories," McMillan told Newsweek. "They are the main vehicle that is driving this belief that the 2020 election was not free and fair." The Republican Party of Arizona has been contacted for comment.

The 2020 election was called "the most secure" in U.S. history by the top cybersecurity official in the Trump administration, noted Stefanie Lindquist, a professor of law and political sciences at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

"We don't have widespread problems of people stuffing ballot boxes, or anything of the sort," Lindquist told Newsweek. Citizens who are concerned about the security of elections can serve as poll watchers "without guns," she said.

"There are legal processes that can be used, including court cases, if there's a concern that there's been fraud," she said. "The idea that you would become your own law enforcement body is frankly, deeply disturbing [...] They're not roving, deputized police forces, they are private citizens who are taking it upon themselves, to appear to be using threat of violence to intimidate voters, and that's just frankly, unlawful."

She added: "It's a matter of grave concern to those of us who care deeply about our democracy that threats of violence and violence are becoming so commonplace in connection with our elections."

Voters Have Options Before Election Day

Voters in Arizona and elsewhere have plenty of options if they are concerned about their safety when dropping off a ballot at a drop box, Gulotta said.

"If anyone has concerns about their safety, they should remove themselves from those situations," Gulotta said. "There are plenty of ways that voters can vote and not have any worry about coming in contact with these people."

Almeida said if the ballot drop box a voter wants to use doesn't feel safe, they should head to a different one. She said it is likely too close to Election Day to post a ballot in the mail, but that in many states, people can turn it in at elections offices.

"In several states, there's also a process where you can surrender your vote by mail or absentee ballot and then vote in person on Election Day, if that feels safer," she said.