News,
‘Just out here watching boxes’: Armed Arizona ‘poll watchers’ raise fears of right-wing voter intimidation
: detailed suggestions and opinions about
‘Just out here watching boxes’: Armed Arizona ‘poll watchers’ raise fears of right-wing voter intimidation
.
Video footage released Friday night showing armed individuals sitting near a ballot drop box in Mesa, Arizona is heightening alarm over right-wing intimidation efforts as early voting kicks off across the United States.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office told a local ABC affiliate that it is investigating several individuals who were watching a Mesa voting location on Friday. The department confirmed that two individuals at the site were armed.
A clip posted to social media by ABC reporter Nicole Grigg shows two masked people dressed in tactical gear observing the ballot drop box.
“This is obviously totally incompatible with liberal democracy and an open society,” MSNBC‘s Chris Hayes wrote in response to the video.
Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, emerged as a key election-denial flashpoint in 2020 as Trump supporters baselessly accused local officials of engaging in fraud to deny the former president a second term. President Joe Biden narrowly won the state in 2020, a victory that was subsequently confirmed by a GOP-led review of the vote count.
Leave a Comment