PHOENIX โ Saying evidence is lacking, a federal judge refused late Friday to issue an order directing the Republican Party, Donald Trump and his supporters not to harass or intimidate voters.
U.S. District Court Judge John Tuchi acknowledged news reports quoting Trump as telling supporters the election is โrigged.โ He also said there were statements made by the GOP presidential nominee telling backers to โgo out and watchโ for vote fraud and to go to polling places โand go sit there with friends and make sure itโs on the up and up.โ
But Tuchi said none of that rose to the level of violating the federal Voting Rights Act, which makes it a crime to โintimidate, threaten or coerce ... any person voting or attempting to vote.โ
Also, the judge said that the things Trump was telling supporters to do are in some ways impossible to accomplish.
For example, he said, even if Trump was telling people to keep an eye out for people who are not in this country legally โIt is beyond question that no one can tell a personโs citizenship based on what that person looks like or sounds like.
โSimply arguing there is voter fraud and urging people to watch out for it is not, without more, sufficient to justify the extraordinary relief that an injunction constitutes,โ Tuchi wrote.
He separately said there was no evidence that the Arizona Republican Party was involved in any effort to get people to violate the rights of would-be voters.
But the judge left the door open a bit for reconsideration. He told the Democrats who sought the injunction that they can come back to court, through Election Day on Tuesday, โif they receive additional, material evidence.โ
Fridayโs ruling is a setback for Democrats who are arguing in federal courts in various battleground states that the actions of Trump and his allies, and the actions Trumpโs supporters will take in response, threaten to keep people away from the polls on Tuesday out of fear. They sought orders from various judges to block moves that would intimidate voters.
As in Arizona, most of these efforts have been rebuffed, though a federal judge in Ohio did say that anyone who harasses or intimidates voters at or near polling places in that state would face charges of contempt of court. The Ohio order specifically blocks anyone from either party from hanging around polling places unless they intend to vote and from questioning voters and taking photos or videos around polling sites.
Tuchi was unwilling to go that far, saying the Arizona Democratic Party failed to prove that any actions by the Trump campaign rose to the level of conspiring to have people intimidate voters.
โIt produced no evidence that the Trump Campaign organized, trained or otherwise facilitated any volunteerโs actual attendance at a polling place as an observer, in Arizona or elsewhere,โ the judge wrote. Added to that, the judge said, is that there is no evidence the Trump campaign engaged in any prior voter intimidation in Arizona.
โAnd despite that early in-person voting has been ongoing in Arizona for over three weeks, it (the Democratic Party) produced no evidence of any attempts at voter intimidation, or any voter reporting they felt intimidated, during this cycle,โ Tuchi wrote.
The judge separately refused to block Stop the Steal, run by Trump ally Roger Stone, from conducting โexit pollingโ at certain locations.
Democrats argued that the real goal of Stone and the organization was another form of intimidation because these โpollingโ efforts were being set up solely at sites where minorities and Democrats are the likely voters. That, they argued, showed this wasnโt true scientific polling.
Tuchi said that does raise questions.
โIf Stop the Steal does intend to conduct its polling only at Democratic-leaning or majority-minority districts, its actions are facially suspicious,โ the judge said, adding, โNeither Stop the Steal nor Mr. Stone have offered legitimate reasons for conducting polling in those targeted locations.โ
But Tuchi said thatโs not enough to block the activity.
โThere is no requirement for exit polls to be scientific,โ the judge said.
โUnscientific, targeted, unreliable ... exit polling, by itself, does not violate any votersโ rights,โ Tuchi continued. โWithout a demonstration that Stop the Stealโs planned exit polling is likely to intimidate, the court may not enjoin it from conducting its polling.โ
