As election deniers run for important positions in Arizona, warnings about a shaky democracy struck home for some voters.

The voters who flocked to a high school in Phoenix on Wednesday night to hear from former President Barack Obama wanted to convey a message of resistance.

They declared that they will not allow their state’s voters to be intimidated by activists who showed up to monitor ballot drop boxes late last month, some of them armed, masked, and wearing camouflage. They said they are determined to defeat former President Donald Trump’s hand-picked slate of election deniers, including gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, Senate nominee Blake Masters, and Secretary of State nominee Mark Finchem.

Prior to next week’s midterm elections and the 2024 presidential election, in which Arizona is likely to play a crucial role, democratic institutions in Arizona appear to be the most fragile, as President Joe Biden warned Americans on Wednesday night from Washington, DC, that democracy is in jeopardy.

Having successfully thwarted Trump’s attempts to have the 2020 election annulled, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is now in a tight race against Lake, who has stated she will accept the results of a “fair, honest, and transparent election” after initially declining to make a commitment to doing so in an interview with MINIECHAT. And Finchem, who could end up serving as the state’s top elections official, is still attempting to nullify the outcomes of the most recent election.

“If you still need a reason to vote, think about the reality that our democracy is at stake. And nowhere is more clearer than here in Arizona,” Obama said to the gathering on Wednesday. He later said that if election deniers take over all the top state positions, “democracy as we know it may not survive in Arizona.”

After the 2020 election, Maricopa County served as the target of many “audits,” including the phoney political investigation carried out by the now-defunct company known as Cyber Ninjas. In a state that Biden won by less than 10,500 votes, both major parties are already preparing for a possible new conflict over the election results. And that tone is being established by the leading GOP contenders.

The fact that “extreme Republicans” in her state were able to elevate candidates like Lake and Masters, who won their primary in part by repeating Trump’s untruths about the 2020 election, concerned Maricopa County resident Joann Rodriguez, a registered Democrat.

Besides Trump’s talking points that the election was rigged, what issues are they campaigning on? stated Rodriguez. She said that “a number of Trumpers” were still cruising through her Glendale, Arizona neighbourhood in their pickups flying the Trump banner. “And they’re showing up at the polling places or wandering about with pistols on their hips, showing up for what reason? Do they really believe their intimidation methods will succeed?

Wednesday night, Hobbs praised her performance as secretary of state. When insurrectionists stormed her house after she certified the 2020 election, she stated, “I stood for democracy, and I’m still doing it now in this run for governor.”

In a recent survey conducted by the New York Times and Siena College, she and Lake were tied for first place. The election is rated a Toss-up by Nathan L. Gonzales of Inside Elections.

Obama’s arrival in Arizona less than a week before the midterm elections to support other Democrats, notably Sen. Mark Kelly, who is in a tight battle with Masters, put the state on edge. Obama came to the Grand Canyon State to energise the Democratic base and ensure that young voters and Latino voters, who will be crucial to success in Arizona, come out in a midterm election year, since those top statewide elections may be determined on a razor’s edge.

Both Biden and Obama have argued that the survival of democracy is in jeopardy, but Biden had to make his case from the other side of the nation since he was not asked to campaign in key swing states.

Keith Greenberg, a registered Republican from Maricopa County, attended Obama’s event because of the political atmosphere and his worries over the integrity of the election results. He said in an interview that he was voting against the Trump ticket and not for Democrats in this election.

Greenberg remarked, “The Republican Party today is not the Republican Party I’m a member of. The 2020 election was fair and honest.” “I can’t put up with that — the deception,” one person said. “That’s more like the American Nazi Party.”

According to Greenberg, if the Trump campaign prevails, “Arizona has lost its mind. And it’s no longer safe to live here. In the event that Mark Finchem wins and declares, “Well, I don’t care how the people voted. What’s the purpose if I’m going to do it? We no longer have democracy.

The fact that two lawsuits have already been filed in federal court on behalf of voters who felt intimidated by the vigorous patrols at ballot drop boxes late last month highlights Arizona’s role as a hotbed of election disputes.

After some activists began photographing voters and their licence plates, presumably motivated by unfounded rumours of “mules” stuffing ballot boxes in 2020, voters complained to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office. Tuesday, a federal court made a decision in one of the lawsuits that prohibits members of an organisation called Clean Elections USA, whose leader erroneously claimed the 2020 election was rigged, from openly carrying firearms or donning body armour within 250 feet of drop boxes.

The decision also forbids the group’s members from speaking to or screaming at voters who cast their votes in the drop boxes and forbids them from photographing or filming voters at the drop boxes. The League of Women Voters had filed a lawsuit, and the Justice Department had commented on it. Federal prosecutors claimed that the right-wing group’s “vigilante ballot security activities” were likely unlawful and “raise substantial issues of voter intimidation” in a court filing, albeit the DOJ did not openly take a side.

A SSRS MINIECHAT survey conducted on Wednesday highlighted the extent to which Republicans believe Trump lied about his election victory: Republicans expressed their disbelief at Biden’s election victory to the tune of 66%.

This dynamic is even more evident in a state like Arizona, where Trump supporters dominate the Republican Party and have condemned leaders like former Arizona senator Jeff Flake and departing Republican governor Doug Ducey for their alleged lack of allegiance to the former president.

In spite of all the commotion, Maricopa County resident Michelle Gonzales, a registered Democrat, said she thinks people went to see Obama on Wednesday night “so they could feel optimistic.”

When there is so much hyperbole being used, she added, “I think it’s vital to truly hear from someone — someone we trust and believe in — that we can be positive about this election.” “You can view every single one of them here. There are a lot of people waiting. I really want to think that people want to vote for these liars and cheats and that they have morals and beliefs that we should all share as human beings.