The Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature is currently debating a collection of bills that would allow the state to overturn presidential election results. The pending bill would permit the Legislature to appoint its own slate of electors that do not have to reflect the candidate who won the state’s election.
The massive proposal also hopes to purge several thousands from Arizona’s permanent early vote by mail list and ban the prohibition of certain pens as a response to the widely debunked “sharpie scandal” in Arizona.
State Rep. Shawnna Bolick (R-Phoenix) introduced the set of bills on Friday. “This bill would give the Arizona Legislature back the power it delegated to certify the electors,” said Bolick. “It is a good, democratic check and balance.” Had Bolick’s set of bills been passed before the 2020 presidential election, the GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature could have appointed its own a slate of electors for Donald Trump instead of Joe Biden, whom the majority of Arizonians voted for.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs tweeted, “we should just get rid of the presidential election altogether,” joking that the Republican bill would amount to the same result.
In a statement Friday, Bolick said, “the mainstream media is using this election bill as click bait to generate misleading headlines.”
State Sen. Martin Quezada (D-Arizona) said in committee that “conservative efforts to restrict voting rights and restrict voting accessibility have stretched back to the very founding of our nation.”
Bolick’s bill would remove voters from from the rolls if they have not voted in two primaries and two general elections consecutively. Sate Sen. Juan Mendez (D-Arizona) came out in opposition of the bill saying, “people choosing not to use their ballot means we as politicians are failing to give those voters a reason to vote.”
Arizona Republicans cite a lack of faith in voting systems for their proposed overhaul, but Quezada told the committee that “the way to fix those problems is not to run bills like this, it’s to tell the truth.”
