“Under surveillance”

The new right-wing trend going into the midterm elections might be ballot box watch parties. Following former President Donald Trump’s example, political candidates and conservative documentarians have pushed theories claiming that political operatives called “mules” dumped illegal votes into ballot boxes during the 2020 election, and that it’s likely to happen again.

In Seattle, Wash., an organization called Drop Box Watch posted “Under Surveillance” signs at drop boxes in King County in July. Supporters then signed up in shifts to watch voters submit their ballots. They claim to have scared off a few mules.

In Arizona, Seth “Captain K” Keshel, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, galvanized like-minded followers on the Telegram messaging app to join “all-night patriot tailgate parties” in July as early voters submitted ballots for the August primaries.

Democrats equate these stakeouts to voter intimidation. Republican activists argue that law-abiding voters have no reason to be afraid. It isn’t illegal to watch ballot boxes as long as no one tries to stop a voter from submitting his ballot—but the limits of the practice aren’t fully tested in court.

Ballot boxes were not widely used until 2020, when all but 10 states implemented them during the COVID-19 pandemic as an alternative to voting in person. Absentee ballots deposited in these boxes must be in appropriate envelopes, match a voter’s registration, and include signatures before being counted. Republicans say these safeguards aren’t enough.

Legislatures in Arizona and Utah recently passed measures to install 24/7 photo and video ­monitoring of ballot boxes.

Out of the spam box, into the inbox

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In a 4-1 vote on Aug. 11, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) approved a Google pilot program to exempt political emails from its algorithms that filter spam out of inboxes. Google requested the FEC’s input after thousands of public commenters opposed the change and begged for ­campaign emails to remain in spam folders. The tech company announced the program after Republicans claimed conservative content is disproportionately flagged as spam in Gmail.

The FEC begrudgingly determined that exempting campaign emails does not violate campaign law. Democratic Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum voted in favor, although she expressed concern that the change would only benefit political committees. But she said she didn’t want to “hamstring” future pilot programs. Another Democratic commissioner abstained from voting.

Google says it plans to run the program through January 2023 as long as it “doesn’t degrade user ­experience.” —C.L.