Arizona Republicans Propose To Give Lawmakers – Not Election Officials – A Definitive Review Of Election Results

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The effort of the GOP lawmakers in battlefield states to drastically change voting laws comes after last year’s election saw a record number of early and mail-in voters, many of them Democrats, after the rules were relaxed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The high numbers led to unfounded claims of fraud by then-President Donald Trump and other Republicans that culminated in the deadly Jan. 6 uprising at the Capitol.
Under a new proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution introduced by a Republican senator, the legislature would meet in a special session the Monday after election day to review or scrutinize the results of the election, a provision some Republicans have. said is needed after the November elections.

GOP Senator David Gowan, the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation “is not intended to ignore the vote of the people,” but provides a process for controlling the election. “

Democrats and voting advocates have pushed back the legislation, saying it could deprive voters by leaving election results in the hands of state lawmakers.

“This initiative is so insulting, such an insult to our democracy,” said Randy Perez, director of democracy at LUCHA Arizona, a grassroots social and economic justice organization.

Arizona became one of the few states whose election results were scrutinized after the November election, when President Joe Biden became the second Democrat in more than seven decades to win the state. The Trump campaign had filed a lawsuit in the state to get a summary of all the votes cast on election day, as some voters were confused on election day and feared their ballots were not being counted. The campaign later dropped the suit.

Also under the proposed amendment, the legislature would have the power to elect the state’s presidential voters.

Arizona has 11 electoral college votes, and voters are from the same political party as the presidential candidate who wins the majority of the votes. Current state law requires presidential voters to vote for the winner of the popular vote, and any voter who refuses to follow the law is replaced, according to the National Association of Secretary of State.

Choosing the slate of voters is critical in presidential elections when even the smallest margins can result in a victory. In the November election, Biden’s victory in Arizona was crucial in getting him the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency.

Gowan said his proposal would “return the authority of the electoral college to the legislature.”

Republican lawmakers have introduced a similar bill in the Arizona House.

Democrats and advocates condemned the Senate bill because it perpetuates baseless allegations of voter fraud and potentially risks denying millions of voters the right to vote.

“Why even hold a presidential election, why voters vote on it when the legislature can basically override everything voters vote for,” Senator Sean Bowie, a Democrat, said at a Tuesday meeting.

The bill is one of more than a dozen electoral laws that Republicans introduced to the state following Biden’s November victory, many of which focus on the mail-in-voting process that peaked in 2020 with about 80% of Arizonans voted by mail.

According to an updated analysis by the liberal Brennan Center for Justice, lawmakers in the state of Grand Canyon have filed, tabled, or tabled at least 19 bills to limit voting rights.
A notarial notary would be required for one invoice. Another allows voters to request a ballot by mail, but voters should return their ballots in person. One measure would remove voters who miss four consecutive elections from the state’s permanent list of early ballots – allowing a voter to automatically receive a ballot by mail for each election – effectively eliminating the “permanent” feature.

In total, according to Brennan, at least 250 restrictive ballots are being weighed by the state legislature, an effort led by Republicans – more than six times the number of bills for the same time last year.

Voting rights experts and lawyers see a link between the Republicans’ state-level proposals and Trump’s conspiracy theories surrounding his 2020 election loss.

“This policy is driven by lies and it deprives voters of the right to vote. It is time to silence the people. Because the people were heard in November and some people don’t like what they heard,” said Alex Gulotta of All Voting is Local Arizona in an interview. with CNN.

It really is the tyranny of ignorance. A subset of people so concerned about keeping their power are willing to do anything, and part of it is to continue with this untruth about our election, ”he added. to.

Even GOP members of the state legislature have doubts about the need for some of the bills, including Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers.

“To restore the sense of credibility to the election itself, people have put forward a lot of bills. Some of them I think are valid. We have to clean up the voter rolls, make sure people are here to vote, that’s pretty standard stuff. not so acceptable to me, ”said Bowers, adding that he disagrees with a proposal that voters have their absent ballots notarized.

“No, I’m not going to do that,” he said.

“I was not happy with the outcome, but I don’t have to be happy with the outcome to know that honorable people have done honorable work,” Bowers said, praising the security and integrity of the state’s electoral system.

If the constitutional amendment is finally passed, there would be a statewide vote in the next general election in November 2022.

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