A federal judge Tuesday put limits on a group monitoring ballot drop boxes in Arizona.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi issued a temporary restraining order as requested by the League of Women Voters against Clean Elections USA. The order will be in effect for 14 days.
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The order prohibits members of Clean Elections USA and their agents monitoring drop box locations from being within 75 feet of a drop box, following people delivering ballots to the drop box, and verbally engaging with people depositing ballots in the drop box or are within 75 feet of the drop box.
Group members also are prohibited from openly carrying firearms and wearing visible body armor within 250 feet of the ballot drop box.
Melody Jennings, the founder of Clean Elections USA, also was ordered to post messages to her Truth Social account, one of which reads in part, “It is not always illegal to deposit multiple ballots in a ballot drop box. It is legal to deposit the ballot of a family member, household member, or person for whom you are the caregiver.”
The statement must remain posted through the close of voting on Election Day, per the order.
“It is paramount that we balance the rights of the defendant to engage in their constitutionally protected First Amendment activity with the interest in the plaintiffs and in voters casting a vote free of harassment and intimidation,” Liburdi said in an Associated Press report.
Arizona officials have expressed concern over reports of voter intimidation at ballot boxes. In an Oct. 20 complaint filed with the Arizona secretary of state’s office, a voter claims he and his wife were harassed and photographed when they returned their ballots. He said the group also called them “mules.”
In Maricopa County, an Oct. 28 video obtained by ABC News shows men in tactical gear near an outdoor ballot box.
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Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said her office had referred six reports of possible voter intimidation to the state attorney general’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice for further investigation, according to the Associated Press.
Hobbs, a Democrat, is running against Republican Kari Lake for the state’s governorship.
