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James O’Keefe warns against placing hidden cameras in ballot boxes
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James O’Keefe warns against placing hidden cameras in ballot boxes

Conservative activist James O’Keefe was warned not to install hidden cameras at polling places in Arizona after claiming he was in the process of shipping the devices; This was a completely illegal action. Maricopa County attorney Rachel Mitchell stated this in a letter to O’Keefe.

“If you send a hidden camera to a poll worker to make audiovisual recording at a polling place, you may be guilty of conspiracy to violate Arizona law,” he wrote in his message. Obtained by Washington Post through the state’s public records law.

As ABC15 political analyst Garrett Archer explained O’Keefe’s plans for X, “So…it’s illegal. “This is an invasion of privacy for voters.”

On October 26, O’Keefe wrote to X: “If you are a poll worker, election judge, or election clerk seeking to register at your polling place,@okeefemedia I’ll send you a special OMG hidden camera earlier this week before the election.

Yes, O’Keefe’s organization stands for OMG, which stands for O’Keefe Media Group.

O’Keefe noted that his organization will also “determine whether you are in a Jurisdiction where recording is legal.” He also previously shared a video secretly recorded at a polling station in Arizona.

The conservative activist has a history of using undercover video to expose what he claims are the nefarious actions of mainstream media and liberal groups, but he has often been criticized for using deceptively edited videos and other questionable techniques. He was fired from the organization he founded last year, Project Veritas. Comedian John Oliver celebrates the firing on “Last Week Tonight” and calls O’Keefe an “alt-right Borat.”

Voter privacy is extremely important in the United States; It is not legal for anyone to know who you voted for unless you consent. O’Keefe did not specifically identify Arizona as one of the states he targeted, but officials in the state were alarmed by his history of releasing the video he posted, as well as a video secretly recorded at a polling place in Arizona.

Each state has its own laws regarding video recording and photography at polling places. For example, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawai’i, Indiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Utah allow ballot selfies; Florida allows voters to take photos of their ballots, but not while they are placing the ballot into voting machines.

All ballots in Oregon are cast by mail, and voters are allowed to take photos of their ballots. But Texas does not allow any wireless communication devices or recording devices while voting, making it legally impossible to photograph a ballot with a phone.

The issue of voter privacy has been extremely relevant to this year’s election, and has even spread to social media, where a “nobody will know” trend dominates most platforms in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Videos, mostly made by women, show people voting to “cancel” their partners’ dissenting votes; This often implies that women will support more liberal policies than men, including reproductive rights. While the videos are often funny, they highlight a real concern that many people struggle with in their relationships or marriages.

Of particular concern to Democrats and Kamala Harris are the votes of conservative, mostly white women, who have historically tended to vote in deference to their husbands’ decisions. Democratic pollster Celinda Lake he told The Guardian“Wives often defer to their husbands’ assumed expertise in politics, and then men reinforce that assumption, expressing their intensity and supposedly greater expertise.”

“We’re trying to tell women that you have your own way of doing business, your own perspective, that you focus on what’s good for the whole family. Then we emphasize that voting is private,” Lake shared.