Dark Skinned Man Votes. Right Wing Freaks Out.
So, the latest wingnut voter fraud freakout involves A.J. LaFaro, chair of the Maricopa County Republican Party, witnessing a Hispanic man “stuffing” a ballot box with hundreds of absentee ballots.
On August 25, I was working with the Maricopa County Elections Staff observing early ballot processing at their MCTEC Facility….
I was seated at one of the cubicles in the outer foyer of the Maricopa County Elections MCTEC Facility facing the protected reception area. The main entry to the foyer and facility was behind me to the right. At approximately 12:55pm, I heard a loud thud behind me and turned around to see what was going on. A person wearing a Citizens for a Better Arizona (CBA) t-shirt dropped a large box of hundreds of early ballots on the table and started stuffing the ballot box as I watched in amazement.
The whole thing was caught on surveillance video:
The right wing “media” jumped on this, with headlines in The Blaze and The Daily Caller. Of course Dim Jim Hoft reblogged it with the headline, “CAUGHT ON TAPE: Dem Operative Stuffs Ballot Box in Arizona (Video).”
(And do I even have to mention how out and out racist the comments on these pages were?)
Poor Mr. LaFaro was unable to track down this perfectly well behaved citizen violent thug:
I don’t know if that person in the video is an illegal alien, a dreamer or a citizen. What I do know is that he was a vulgar, disrespectful, violent thug who has no respect for our laws. I would have followed him to the parking lot to take down his tag number, but I feared for my life
Yeah, well, as it turns out, there was no actual fraud going on here. Per Wonkette:
…what LaFaro witnessed in August was a perfectly routine, completely legal part of early voting under Arizona law — and LaFrao damned well knows it. Citizens for a Better Arizona, like several other political groups in the state, including the state GOP, helps collect and deliver absentee ballots from voters: one voter, one ballot. The Arizona Elections Manual is quite clear about the legality of this:
After they have securely sealed the voted ballot inside the early ballot return envelope, voters may voluntarily give their voted early ballot to a person of their choice for delivery to the Recorder or a polling place. The designated person shall not tamper with the envelope or the ballot and shall not deliberately fail to deliver the ballot to the Recorder or a polling place within the voter’s county of residence.
More: Latino Guy Delivers Absentee Ballots in Arizona. You’ll Never Guess What Happens Next.
So the whole thing boils down to “Hispanic guy seen participating in voting process,” which to the RWNJs equals fraud, (because liberals are the real racists, don’t ya know).