Arizona certified its election results on Monday, awarding President-elect Joe Biden another electoral victory and ensuring a Republican Senate seat flips blue for retired U.S. Navy Captain Mark Kelly (D).
Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs certified the results and affirmed the integrity of the election.
“Despite the unprecedented challenges, Arizonans showed up for our democracy,” Hobbs said.
Voter turnout reached nearly 80%, with over 3.4 million ballots cast in the general election.
Three Republican officials witnessed the certification, as required by law: Gov. Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel.
Ducey praised Arizona’s electoral system in a series of tweets on Monday, writing that he has “bragged about it quite a bit” and denounced allegations of widespread voter fraud that have been amplified by President Donald Trump and his legal team.
Ducey even ignored a call from Trump during the signing ceremony. Ducey had previously bragged that the president called him so often that he changed his ringtone to “Hail To The Chief” to indicate a call from the White House. During the ceremony, Ducey’s cellphone rang with an audible tune of “Hail To The Chief” – the governor sent the president straight to voicemail.
“We’ve been doing early voting since 1992,” Ducey wrote. “Arizona didn’t explore or experiment this year. We didn’t cancel election day voting as some pushed for — we weren’t going to disenfranchise any voter.”
He continued: “In Arizona, we have some of the strongest election laws in the country, laws that prioritize accountability and clearly lay out procedures for conducting, canvassing, and even contesting the results of an election. We’ve got ID at the polls. We review EVERY signature (every single one) on early ballots — by hand — unlike other states that use computers. Prohibitions on ballot harvesting. Bipartisan poll observers. Clear deadlines, including no ballots allowed after Election Day.”
Trump’s team has questioned their loss in Arizona, arguing that there was widespread voter fraud without any evidence. They had initially attempted to block certification, but appear to have pivoted to challenging the results following certification, keeping in line with Arizona’s election laws.
Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward filed court documents last week which indicated she would challenge the results as soon as they were certified, and participated in a hearing earlier this week. She is specifically requesting to evaluate signatures on a small percentage of mail-in ballots.
As for Kelly, since he won in a special election, he will join the Senate immediately. His swearing-in ceremony will take place Wednesday at noon.
