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Arizona City Repeals Speech Ban That Got Mom Dragged Out Of Council Meeting After Criticizing Officials

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An Arizona city repealed a rule restricting residents’ public testimony on Tuesday, weeks after a local mother was arrested for speaking at a city council meeting last month.

In a unanimous vote, the Surprise City Council revoked a regulation barring residents from criticizing city officials during public meetings, as a local NBC affiliate reported. According to the outlet, “[m]embers of the council did not speak further about the [new] rule during Tuesday’s meeting” and it remains “unclear when [it] will go into effect.”

The original rule was cited by Mayor Hall during the City Council’s Aug. 20 meeting before he had resident Rebekah Massie forcibly removed. The Arizona mother used the public forum to criticize the city attorney but was stopped mid-testimony by Hall, who accused her of “attacking the city attorney personally” and violating rules governing public meetings.

Massie objected and said the regulation violated her First Amendment rights to free speech but was nonetheless detained by the police officer overseeing the meeting at Hall’s direction. She was arrested and subsequently charged with multiple misdemeanors, as previously reported by The Arizona Republic.

The arrest prompted Massie to file a lawsuit against Hall, the city of Surprise, and the aforementioned police officer earlier this month. Represented by attorneys with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the complaint argued the rule violates her First Amendment rights to free speech.

“When Massie exercised her constitutional right to criticize officials at a City Council meeting, a right ‘high in the hierarchy of

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Republican Poll Watchers Blocked From Duty In Multiple Pennsylvania Counties

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The Republican National Committee (RNC) reported in a statement that four court-appointed Republican poll watchers were either blocked from entering or kicked out of several Philadelphia polling places Tuesday morning.

Republican poll observers were also turned away from York, Westmoreland, Allegheny, Lehigh, Cambria, Wyoming, and Lackawanna counties, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley reported on social media.

PENNSYLVANIA ELECTION INTEGRITY:

Early this morning we learned that Republican poll watchers in Philadelphia, York, Westmoreland, Allegheny, Lehigh, Cambria, Wyoming, and Lackawanna Counties were being turned away.

We deployed our roving attorneys, engaged with local officials,…

— Michael Whatley (@ChairmanWhatley) November 5, 2024

“We deployed our roving attorneys, engaged with local officials, and can now report that all Republican poll watchers have been let into the building,” Whatley said.   

In Philadelphia, RNC attorneys connected with Democrat District Attorney Larry Krasner, and officials were contacted in the other counties, an RNC official said on background.

“There is a history of this happening in Philadelphia, specifically because it’s such a Democrat area,” the RNC official said.

“This is a crime, and should not happen in a fair and secure election,” the RNC said in a statement. “Refusing to allow Republicans in the room threatens the integrity and security of Pennsylvania’s elections.”

As the Federalist reported in 2020, Democrat poll watchers outnumbered Republican poll watchers in Philadelphia. When ballots were counted at the Philadelphia Convention Center, Republican observers were either kept out, or allowed inside but kept too far away from the counting to see what was happening.

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Arizona Officials’ Database Fiasco Is Still Causing Headaches For Voters And Election Workers

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A previously unearthed error within Arizona’s voter registration database that categorized 218,000 registered voters who have not provided proof of citizenship as “full-ballot” voters is still causing major problems for electors and officials leading up to Election Day.

On Saturday, the left-wing Votebeat Arizona reported that Pinal County incorrectly told almost 900 electors whose registration profiles lack documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC) and voted early this cycle that they needed to provide such documentation by 7 p.m. local time on Election Day to have their votes counted. According to the outlet, “The county’s decision to flag these voters’ registrations came to light when some of the voters tried to cast an early ballot for Tuesday’s election, and shortly after were notified [of such requirements] by the county recorder’s office.”

Roughly 2,000 Maricopa County electors who voted during the state’s early voting period were similarly instructed by local election officials to provide such proof ahead of Election Day, according to a Sunday report by Votebeat Arizona.

The issue stems back to early September, when Arizona election officials discovered approximately 98,000 registrants on the voter rolls who lack DPOC. The problem reportedly arose from a complication with how the state’s Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) shares information with Arizona’s voter registration database.

In Arizona, voters registering via state registration form must show DPOC to vote in state and local races. Individuals who are unable to provide such documentation are registered as “federal-only” voters and can only cast ballots in federal races.

While alarming, the

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Watch For Democrats Trying To Tilt North Carolina Blue With Overseas Ballots After Election Day

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On the eve of Election Day, North Carolina’s outstanding absentee vote count stood at nearly 200,000 requested ballots. Given how close races up and down the ballot are expected to be in the state, election integrity advocates there are concerned about last-minute delays that could flip results in the days after the election.

One of the biggest concerns comes from Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) voters, citizens stationed abroad like diplomats or members of the military, whose overall vote total is in the tens of thousands, but trends Democrat. The catch in North Carolina is that state law for UOCAVA voters have little-to-no security measures for this kind of absentee voter.

“The way they’re going to steal it is they’re going to drag in a bunch of UOCAVA voters, whatever Delta they need to make up,” Jay DeLancy, executive director of the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina, told The Federalist. “With this number of ballots, it looks like they’ve got a built-in bank of ballots they can dump in anytime they want to after they know the results, to customize the turnout.”

As of Nov. 4, there are 197,319 overall absentee ballots in North Carolina that have been requested, but not returned, according to the ticker on the Democrat-run North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE). DeLancy says part of the problem is that there is no way of knowing how many of those outstanding absentee ballots are UOCAVA and how many are in-state North Carolinians.

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