‘CORE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS’

Federal Judge Denies Bid to Stop Right-Wing Ballot Watchers Campaign

The judge, an appointee of Trump, said the court had not seen evidence that the ballot-watching campaign “constitutes a true threat.”

A federal judge has denied a request for a temporary restraining order against a right-wing group accused of intimidating early voters with a “ballot watching” campaign at drop boxes in Arizona. Federal Judge Michael Liburdi, a Trump appointee, ruled that the ballot watchers for Clean Elections USA are protected by the 1st Amendment. “Plaintiffs have not provided the Court with any evidence that Defendants’ conduct constitutes a true threat... Also, Defendants’ conduct does not fall into any traditionally recognized category of voter intimidation,” he wrote. “While there are serious questions implicated, the Court cannot provide preliminary injunctive relief without infringing core constitutional rights,” he wrote in his 14-page opinion. The plaintiffs, the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino, have already filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Clean Elections USA also faces another lawsuit by the League of Women Voters of Arizona, which, like the first one, accuses the group of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. At least three complaints have also been filed with law enforcement by voters who say they were harassed at drop boxes by vigilante ballot watchers.