The voter drop box lawsuit between the League of Women Voters of Arizona and Melody Jennings, founder of Clean Elections USA, concluded recently a confidential settlement agreement.
Inspired by the film “2,000 Mules,” Jennings and others organized citizens to watch for anyone stuffing multiple ballots into drop boxes, take their photos, and report their vehicle license plates to police. Some box watchers carried guns on their bodies, which is allowed under Arizona’s law.
Calling the action voter intimidation, the League of Women Voters of Arizona went to the Federal District of Arizona in October 2022, seeking to stop the ballot box watching.
In addition to Jennings, the case initially involved the Arizona groups Lions of Liberty and Yavapai Preparedness Team, who were similarly watching drop boxes. Soon after the case began, those groups agreed to stop watching drop boxes and were dismissed from the case.
“This case is about freedom of expression and assembly and protecting the rights of folks to express their displeasure and their security concerns about drop boxes, by engaging, allegedly, in drop box monitoring,” Alexander Kolodin of Davillier Law Group LLC in Phoenix, an attorney representing Jennings, told The Epoch Times. “The claims were amicably resolved. Both parties, as part of that resolution, reaffirmed their commitment to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly as well as their disapproval of any sort of voter intimidation, which from our perspective, our client didn’t engage in.”
He could not speak in detail about the terms of the settlement agreement because of the confidentiality agreement.
Discrediting ‘2,000 Mules’
True the Vote, the group behind “2,000 Mules,” provided financial support for Jennings’ legal defense.
“I am happy to have had the opportunity to stand up for the Constitution and assert my rights on behalf of all Americans,” Jennings said in a statement.
In “2,000 Mules,” True the Vote investigators used geotracking and local government video surveillance to show “mules” carrying multiple ballots and visiting multiple drop boxes in the 2020 election.
By Beth Brelje
