There is no reason to stand near drop boxes in Arizona and monitor who is casting ballots. After all, there is no evidence at all that drop boxes are a vehicle for casting fraudulent votes. The Associated Press contacted election administrators across the country and found no significant examples of fraud being committed using drop boxes. Yet there has been a movement to do precisely that.
Much of the concern about drop boxes, of course, derives from the film “2000 Mules,” which showed no actual examples of people casting multiple ballots illegally. (One man accused of voting illegally in the film is now suing for defamation.) The standard of behavior deemed suspicious in the film is … low, meaning that those choosing to “monitor” drop boxes have no benchmark against which to evaluate voters. Meaning that anything at all might be considered “suspicious.” One drop-box monitor, for example, publicly posted a photo of a man casting a vote whose car had no license plate, as reported by NBC News — though it is not really clear why that’s worth elevating as a concern.
This is vigilantism. People have appointed themselves as monitors after being convinced that something nefarious is happening, after believing the dishonest claims of films like “2000 Mules” or people like former president Donald Trump. It is a group that thinks the indifference and inaction of officials isn’t a function of those officials correctly understanding that the alleged threat is fake but, instead, sees...
A federal jury has convicted a San Francisco man of conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering in connection with a scheme involving fraudulent insurance claims on already-wrecked vehicles, pros...