DETROIT — As voters in two top battleground states cast ballots in statewide primaries on Tuesday, election officials were still feeling the hangover from the 2020 presidential election.
In Michigan, officials beefed up security at the Huntington Place convention center in downtown Detroit, where two years ago — when it was known as the TCF Center — the police pushed back hordes of people trying to stop poll workers from counting absentee ballots that they falsely believed to be fraudulent. This year, prominent election deniers who have clung to those falsehoods have organized to become the poll workers counting votes and have forced officials to respond to a string of specious claims and concerns about safety.
In Arizona, Republican legislators who have long been involved in questioning Joe Biden’s victory there were calling for people to stake out ballot drop boxes to ensure that no one was illegally stuffing with them ballots, according to voting rights groups and a local news report. The fear stems from a debunked conspiracy theory popularized by a recent film. Another theory circulating online — this one involving a fast-drying pen that elections officials asked voters to use to fill out ballots — prompted the Maricopa County attorney to send a letter telling one Republican candidate to stop urging people to steal the pens.
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