Tag: Ballot Drop Boxes

Arizona Free Enterprise Club Files Lawsuit Against Adrian Fontes over ‘Illegal’ and ‘Most Radical’ Elections Procedures Manual in Arizona’s History

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) filed a lawsuit last week against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, accusing him of making illegal changes to the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM). Represented by the America First Policy Institute, Davillier Law Group, and Grand Canyon Legal Center, AFEC said the revisions improperly place protected political speech at risk of criminal prosecution and have an unconstitutional chilling effect on protected political speech.

“Secretary Fontes has produced one of the most radical elections procedures manuals in our state’s history,” said Scot Mussi, AFEC’s president. “If the illegal provisions of this manual are allowed to stand, the integrity and transparency of state elections would continue to dissipate at the hands of leftwing ideologues. We hope the court agrees with our arguments and forces the Secretary to adhere to state law.”

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Election Officials Plan Ways to Count Votes Faster in 2024

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Election officials throughout the country are allegedly planning methods for counting the votes faster in 2024 than they did in 2020, where many days of delay led to confusion, chaos, and credible widespread accusations of voter fraud.

According to Politico, several of the handful of key swing states have passed laws to implement methods for quicker counting and tabulation of the votes. Secretaries of state in those same states are also taking a more active role in overseeing the elections.

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Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes Discuss Adding More Ballot Drop Boxes

Rachel Alexander

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, whose victory is being challenged by Republican candidate Mark Finchem, hosted a panel discussion with election fraud denier Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer this week.

ABC-15 Data Analyst Garrett Archer moderated the event at the Valley Bar in Phoenix, the bipartisan pair discussed the 2022 midterm election.

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Judge Rejects Progressive Groups Request for Restraining Order to Shut Down Ballot Drop Box Observers

Rachel Alexander

Voters concerned about ballot harvesting are organizing volunteer shifts observing ballot drop boxes, but some progressive organizations have filed lawsuits attempting to stop them. An organization called Protecting Democracy Project filed a lawsuit this week against the organizers as well as some of the volunteer observers on behalf of the League of Women Voters (LWV). The Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans (AARA) and Voto Latino (VL) also filed a lawsuit.

The LWV lawsuit names Lions of Liberty, which is organizing ballot drop box watching in Yavapai County, its affiliate Yavapai Preparedness Team, Clean Elections USA, which is organizing nationwide efforts, and several individuals and John Does. The AARA and VL lawsuit named similar defendants. The latter lawsuit included a photo of some “Doe Defendants,” revealing three people dressed in normal clothing sitting on lawn chairs. 

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As Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward Alleges Maricopa County Broke the Law in the 2022 Primary Election, Groups Launch Drop Box-Watching Operations

Rachel Alexander

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.

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Arizona Attorney General Brnovich Announces Prosecutions After Reviewing Maricopa County Ballot Audit, as Kari Lake Calls to Decertify Election

Rachel Alexander
Mark Brnovich

The highly anticipated first report from Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s investigation into the results of the Maricopa County independent ballot audit are in, and includes criminal prosecutions. Addressed to Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott), who launched the independent audit, the letter referenced the work of his office’s Election Integrity Unit. Brnovich stated, “The EIU’s review has uncovered instances of election fraud by individuals who have been or will be prosecuted for various election crimes.” 

Leading gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who just called for the results of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona and Wisconsin to be reversed, told The Arizona Sun Times, “Today, Attorney General Brnovich confirmed what most of us have known since November 3rd, 2020: The election in Maricopa County was crooked and never should have been certified. This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. It’s an American issue. I look forward to seeing the prosecutions that the Attorney General has in store. It’s time for the perpetrators of this fraud to be held accountable for their actions.”

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Kari Lake Joins Arizona GOP’s Lawsuit Against Secretary of State Hobbs to Stop Unmonitored Ballot Drop Boxes and Include Signature Verification Procedures

Rachel Alexander

Kari Lake may not be elected to office yet, but she is following through already on her vows to protect election integrity. The leading Arizona gubernatorial candidate filed an amicus curiae brief with the Arizona Supreme Court in the case Arizona Republican Party v. Hobbs, which asks the court to compel Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, to include signature verification procedures in the election procedures manual and remove the language she added authorizing the setup of unmonitored ballot drop boxes. Additionally, it challenges “no-excuse” early ballots as violating the Arizona Constitution. 

Lake said in a statement, “Voters have made it very clear that they are demanding nothing less than completely secure elections and we’re going to give it to them come hell or high water.” She said a forensic investigation earlier this year along with a canvass of absentee voters, which uncovered tens of thousands of irregularities with ballots cast in the 2020 general election, compelled her to enter the lawsuit.

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Arizona GOP Sues Arizona Secretary of State Hobbs to Stop Unmonitored Ballot Drop Boxes, Include Signature Verification Procedures, and Even Challenges Mail-In Voting

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Republican Party, along with its secretary Yvonne Cahill, has filed a lawsuit against Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs over more actions she has taken that appear to be making it easier to commit voter fraud. The AZGOP’s Application for Issuance of Writ Under Exercise of Original Jurisdiction asks the court to compel Hobbs to include signature verification procedures in the election procedures manual and remove the language she added authorizing the set up of unmonitored ballot drop boxes, and challenges “no-excuse” early ballots as violating the Arizona Constitution. 

AZGOP Chair Kelli Ward, who has been out on the forefront combating election fraud since the 2020 presidential election, told The Arizona Sun Times, “We want to make sure that our elections are secure so we can restore voter confidence and strengthen our representative republic.”

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Influential Georgia State Senator Urges Audit of Surveillance Tapes at Ballot Drop Boxes

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An influential Georgia state senator, who is running for lieutenant governor in 2022, says he believes states like his own that used drop boxes to collect absentee ballots last year should audit the surveillance video tapes that were installed at the voting locations to ensure no shenanigans occurred.

“All those drop boxes that were sent throughout Metro Atlanta, you can’t police them if you wanted to, so it just made it ripe for bad actors to game the system,” Republican state Sen. Burt Jones told Just the News in an interview this week.

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Southern Poverty Law Center Files Latest Lawsuit Against Florida’s New Election Law

Peter D'Abrosca

A far-left legal nonprofit has filed the latest lawsuit against the state of Florida over its new election integrity measures. 

“The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the groups HeadCount and the Harriet Tubman Freedom Fighters Corp., is the fourth challenge to the law, which was passed in April by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed in May by Gov. Ron DeSantis,” Orlando Weekly reported. 

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Governor DeSantis Signs Florida Elections Reform Bill

Grant Holcomb
Ron DeSantis

On Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed an elections reform bill into law, causing much debate over the new law’s contents.

The bill, SB 90, designed to ensure election integrity, has been the subject of debate for weeks since the Florida Legislature was passing the bill through committees. The bill will install new requirements for ballot drop boxes as well as mail-in voting, specifically voters who wish to vote absentee will have to ask for a ballot each general election cycle. Also, the drop boxes will need to be staffed by an employee from the supervisor of elections’ office whenever the box is receiving ballots, and times to access the drop boxes will be limited.

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Florida Legislature Hearing Elections Reform Bills

Grant Holcomb
Dennis Baxley

The Florida House is hearing an elections reform package and the Florida Senate is hearing a bill amending Florida’s election law related to ballot drop-boxes and absentee ballot signature verification.

Sen. Dennis Baxley’s (R-12) SB 90 passed the Senate Rules Committee by a 10-7 vote, and Baxley said the bill is well-intentioned designed to protect Florida’s voters and the integrity of Florida’s elections.

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Georgia House Passes Bill to Bolster Absentee Ballot Laws

Peter D'Abrosca

Georgia’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill Monday aimed at making elections more secure, specifically in the way of absentee voting.

House Bill 531 passed Monday with a 97-72 vote, and along with sweeping reforms related to absentee voting, strips the Secretary of State from his role as chairman of the State Elections Board. That person will, if the bill passes and is signed into law, be chosen by the General Assembly.

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Ohio Secretary of State Restricts Ballot Drop Boxes, ACLU Vows to Fight

Peter D'Abrosca

Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State is catching heat from liberal groups, despite allowing the state to proceed with absentee voting via drop boxes.

“Even though Ohio law does not explicitly provide for the use of secure receptacles, commonly known as ‘drop boxes,’ for an absentee voter to return their ballot to the director, this Directive, once again, provides for the continued use of secure receptacles outside of the boards of elections,” Frank LaRose (R) said in a February 12 directive. 

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