(Los Angeles) Les guetteurs armés qui surveillent certains lieux de vote en Arizona, accusés par plusieurs associations de mener une « campagne d’intimidation » des électeurs, n’ont désormais plus le droit d’approcher à moins de 75 mètres des urnes avant les élections de mi-mandat, selon une décision de la justice américaine.
Publié à 16h25
Les personnes actuellement postées quotidiennement devant certaines urnes métalliques où les Américains peuvent déposer leur bulletin en avance sont temporairement « interdites de […] carry firearms within a perimeter of 250 feet” around the boxes, or 76 meters, and to “wear a bulletproof vest” within the same perimeter, according to this decision rendered Tuesday by a federal judge.
They are also forbidden to approach even unarmed within 75 feet (23 meters) of the ballot boxes, to follow the voters and to speak to them, unless the latter speak to them first.
Voting for the midterm elections began ten days ago in Arizona, a state in the American Southwest where Joe Biden outstripped Donald Trump by barely 10,000 votes in 2020, in a very tense, gangrenous climate. by suspicion fueled by conspiracy theories.
Several anonymous lookouts, some of whom carry firearms – which is legal in Arizona – are stationed near the ballot boxes and film voters who come to vote before the November 8 ballot.
In Mesa, a suburb of the state capital Phoenix, the sheriff had to intervene to evacuate two armed men in paramilitary gear.
Several associations have filed a complaint denouncing a “campaign of intimidation” of voters, coordinated according to them by a group of self-proclaimed “patriots”, “Clean Elections USA”.
On Tuesday, the judge also banned the group from spreading false information about the ballot online, after its founder Melody Jennings falsely assured that voters can only give power of attorney to their spouse in Arizona.
Since the 2020 presidential election, several far-right groups have been spreading conspiracy theories that some ballot boxes were stuffed with fake ballots in the United States. And this despite the various surveys and recounts that have demonstrated the validity of the results.
In Arizona, the three Republican candidates for governor, senator and secretary of state — a senior official in charge of the electoral process — are still vigorously contesting the 2020 results.