By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — The video in 2014 seemed startling. A left-wing activist walked into an early voting depository in Phoenix carrying a large box with hundreds of ballots that he began stuffing into a receptacle.
When a Republican poll watcher asked what he was doing, the displeased tee-shirted activist said to stop watching what was happening, then uttered an obscenity.
Accounts had circulated of Arizona left-wingers amassing early ballots however they could then bringing them to election sites, or holding “ballot parties” where they’d collect other people’s ballots or even offer to help mark the ballots before gathering them together then dropping them off by the dozens to be tallied.
It didn’t seem to be a rare abuse when Democrats across the nation acted as if they were simply entitled to defeat Republicans.
The majority-Republican Arizona legislature responded to the abuse by passing a bill against this “ballot harvesting” that GOP Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law in 2016. The law allowed for exceptions such as a family member delivering an ill person’s early ballot, but ruled out allowing strangers to bring in box loads of people’s vote cards that were gathered one way or another.
Conservative Republican political consultant Constantin Querard told The Wanderer on February 3: “We’ve seen the videos of ballots literally being stuffed into ballot boxes by single individuals who are dropping off hundreds of ballots at a time, and stories of voters selling their ballots to buyers who go door to door are legendary.
“Finally the Arizona legislature did something to crack down on these sorts of behaviors, but now everything is being fought over in the courts,” Querard said.
Meanwhile, Adrian Fontes, the activist Democrat county recorder for Arizona’s most populous county, Maricopa, who is supposed to show nonpartisanship in his supervision of voting, added to his reputation for seeking to give Dems the edge in elections by reportedly seeking to sign up more voters at liberal-inclined events while ignoring conservative-inclined gatherings.
Fontes previously had been accused of opening five “emergency voting centers” for the 2018 election but only notifying Democrat activists in advance of his plans.
Democratic groups didn’t like the 2016 law that strengthened Arizona ballot security. They and allies took it to court. As the 2016 general election drew near, the often wacky, California-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the law, only to have the U.S. Supreme Court grant the state of Arizona’s request to keep it in effect for the election.
But left-wingers never give up, convinced in their own minds that any attempt to secure the ballot must be based on discriminatory plotting of one sort or another.
As is often the case, the “progressive” mindset is that minorities are hopelessly inept or irresponsible and are doomed to destruction without their paternalistic superiors governing their lives. It’s an attitude that many minority members themselves increasingly find repellent and disrespectful, but it’s an idea that still sells in left-wing media and lawyering.
Lo and behold, as 2020 began, the Ninth Circuit, rejecting Arizona’s law, revealed that it could read minds, and disclosed that the 2016 measure was put together with actual discriminatory intent. The court declared that the measure’s proponents “had other aims in mind than combating fraud.”
The Arizona Republic, the state’s largest newspaper, reported on January 28 that GOP State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who had helped develop the bill from the beginning while a state representative, said any suggestion of discriminatory intent was “completely and utterly unfounded.”
According to a January 31 news release, the office of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, filed a motion with the Ninth Circuit seeking to stay its ruling while he sought U.S. Supreme Court review.
The release quoted Brnovich: “The Ninth Circuit took the unusual step of overruling multiple previous rulings in the state’s favor, thereby rejecting Arizona’s authority to secure its elections and discourage potential voter fraud. Today’s filing is the first step in seeking a full review and decision from the Supreme Court.”
Republican political consultant Querard told The Wanderer: “At this point the Ninth Circuit is basically overruling earlier decisions from the Ninth Circuit, and everyone is laughing, except the people of Arizona, who have to wonder if they have to deal with well-funded groups playing games with the elections again.
“I suspect the decision will be overturned before the 2020 election, but these groups are going to continue to fight to harvest ballots,” Querard said. “And I’m pretty sure they will ignore the laws even if they are upheld.”
Northern California conservative commentator Barbara Simpson told The Wanderer on February 4: “The recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals should be no surprise to anyone who has paid any attention to just how that court votes,” adding, “…Would it surprise anyone to know that the majority vote was by justices appointed by Democrats and the minority vote was by justices appointed by Republicans?
“There’s no doubt that the details of the voting laws need attention and review, but it seems that the entire action of the Ninth also needs attention,” Simpson said. “It’s expected the case will go to the Supreme Court, and I hope that it has the courage to cut the Ninth off at the knees and put a stop to its history of biased opinions. This travesty in Arizona is just the latest example.”
Rob Haney, a retired president of the Phoenix-based Maricopa County Republican Party, told The Wanderer on February 4: “God is Truth and Truth has been driven out of the Democrat Party. This has been manifested in the over-three-year effort to impeach President Trump and their attempt to corrupt our election process.
“Historically, voter fraud and corruption are two of the favorite tactics of the Democrats,” Haney said, recalling the videotaped ballot-stuffing activist mentioned above. “Federal courts have declared (to be) illegal Arizona’s attempts to stop this abuse of voter rights by partisan activists. They have also ruled that illegal immigrants (residents rather than citizens) be included in this year’s census that apportions state congressional seats.
“Until our courts are populated by judges with constitutional integrity, our electoral system will be compromised,” he said.
As to Democrat Maricopa County Recorder Fontes, GOP political consultant Querard told The Wanderer, “Essentially, if Recorder Fontes can find a large group of left-leaning people, he will show up to register voters in the name of doing a public service, even if it’s just a few hundred people.
“On the other hand, if it’s 20,000 people walking through a gun show, or 10,000 people at a March for Life event, then he won’t get anywhere near the event,” Querard said.
“Fontes is using his office and his taxpayer-funded employees to register liberal, primarily Democrat voters, while purposefully avoiding large public events where he thinks he’ll find large numbers of Republicans who need to be registered,” he said.
Fontes had narrowly defeated the longtime Republican Maricopa County Recorder, Helen Purcell, in November 2016 after Fontes capitalized on voter dissatisfaction over long waiting lines for the March 2016 Arizona presidential preference primary.
Purcell was regarded as a nonpartisan recorder who wanted to oversee honest elections.
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