This month, Jennings’ Clean Elections USA team of volunteers began making Keshel’s idea a reality. Spencer said the drop box watchers wearing fatigues are “one of the clearest examples that conduct might have crossed the line into intimidation that might be unlawful.” Spencer, the former state elections director, told NBC News that legally, “there’s no objective test for intimidation” at drop boxes, but, he said, voter intimidation “is when the combination of a number of different circumstances come together and create an overall feeling that makes the voter deterred from wanting to vote.” Arizona’s secretary of state has already referred six reports of possible voter intimidation to law enforcement.Įric H. The drop box efforts come amid heightened national concern over the midterm elections and how conspiracy-inspired Trump supporters could look to interfere with legitimate voting processes. “Anyone who does not follow the law at a drop box site is instantly disassociated with Clean Elections USA,” Jennings wrote. She distanced herself from illegal behavior at drop boxes in a post Tuesday. Jennings, who goes by to her 35,000 followers on Truth Social, did not respond to requests for comment. The organization, founded by Tulsa, Oklahoma minister Melody Jennings, a Truth Social influencer, was sued this week by the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino for engaging in “conduct that is clearly meant to intimidate.” A screenshot from Truth Social of the former president's account sharing a post from Melody Jennings. The man who spoke with NBC News said that he spoke to two women who were watching the drop box for suspicious behavior and that they told him to sign up for a time slot online through Clean Elections USA. One organization, Clean Elections USA, has been pushing for Trump supporters on Truth Social to create “ballot tailgate parties” to monitor drop boxes nationwide for suspected “mules” since August. On that platform, the former president’s account has shared posts by users advocating for drop box surveillance, including the Mesa drop box. Users on the Twitter-like platform Truth Social, which is owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, have discussed forming “mule parties” or “drop box tailgates” since at least late July, looking to organize volunteers to surveil drop boxes. The conspiracy theories have inspired action. The conspiracy theory got its biggest boost from the widely debunked propaganda film “2,000 Mules,” which alleges such mules somehow changed the outcome of the 2020 election, even though repeated hand counts of ballots recertified the results. But that has not stopped conspiracy theories about “ballot mules” - who supposedly secretly drop off hundreds of fake ballots in the middle of the night at drop boxes or election sites nationwide - from taking hold on pro-Trump parts of the internet. No such drop box fraud has ever been found in significant numbers. Some people have stood watch at the drop box while wearing military-style fatigues and masks over their faces, prompting complaints to the Arizona secretary of state. On Wednesday night, NBC News counted at least nine people watching the ballot drop box in Mesa, a small part of what has become a growing effort by some conservatives to monitor ballot drop boxes in hope of catching election fraud. He said he hoped to catch someone dropping off “100 ballots or 50 ballots.” No one did.
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