Arizona Republicans have proposed changes to the “Arizona Election Challenge Rules”. The proposal, spearheaded by Rep. Cory McGarr, R-Tucson, aims to expand the grounds for contesting election results.
The legislation targets many of the issues that plagued the 2022 election suits of Republican candidates Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh. Lake, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate who made a failed bid for governor in 2022, and Hamadeh, who lost the race for Attorney General to Democrat Kris Mayes, had their legal challenges thrown out by the courts. Judges found that they never proved that any ballots were submitted illegally or that the signature verification process failed.
“This is a full sound-the-alarm moment for American democracy. Arizona Republicans are attacking the most essential tenet of our elections: that the people decide their representatives,” said Sam Paisley, national press secretary for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. For a broader perspective on the disputes over Arizona’s election rules, check out this NBC News article.
The proposed bill would expand the reasons a person can challenge an election for illegal votes to include ballots with a broken chain of custody and ballot envelopes with inconsistent signatures or voter information. These were central parts of the legal challenges brought by Lake and Hamadeh.
House Bill 2472 would also allow the person or group that files an election challenge in the courts to physically examine all ballots, ballot images, and early ballot envelopes in that race, as well as the voters’ registration records.
Despite the fast-tracked schedule of election contests, the bill instructs the courts to give “ample time” for this examination. To understand the challenges to Arizona’s election laws heard by the Supreme Court, read here.
The bill also proposes to give all parties in the suit the right to full discovery of evidence, something that is currently limited in election challenge cases due to time constraints. This is seen as a response to the issues faced by Hamadeh, who argued that the limits on time and discovery of evidence stopped his team from finding more ballots that were incorrectly counted.
“These days, I feel like I’m living in the Orwellian world. We trust our election officials. They would never put their thumb on the scale. They would never try to cheat. Well, we know that’s demonstrably false, and it’s demonstrably false in the way a 6th grader could know that it’s demonstrably false,” said Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale. For more information on Kari Lake’s election challenge, you can read this Fox News article.
Despite opposition from some members of the public, who expressed distrust and concern that the bill could disrupt democracy, the bill was approved by the committee on a 5-4 vote and will next head to the full House of Representatives.
“I don’t trust this bill. I do not trust y’all with this bill,” said Kerry Jackson, a member of the public. Ruthee Goldkorn, a disability rights activist, echoed this sentiment, stating, “This bill was just another attempt to sow distrust and distress among the voters and to disrupt democracy.”
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Former Republican state Rep. Liz Harris, who was ousted from the House last year, spoke in favor of the bill during a House Municipal Oversight and Elections Committee meeting. She asked the lawmakers to amend the bill to also allow all parties in election suits to examine digital files from the tabulators that counted the votes, all precinct ballot reports, and an unmodified copy of the cast-vote record.
“I found it so frustrating that people tell me fraud didn’t occur in the 2020 and 2022 elections, simply because fraud was never proven in court,” said Rep. Rachel Jones, R-Tucson, expressing her support for the bill.
This proposed change to the “Arizona Election Challenge Rules” is a significant development that could potentially reshape the political landscape in Arizona and beyond. As the bill moves forward, it will be crucial to monitor its progress and the potential implications it could have on future elections.
Members of the committee ultimately approved the bill on a 5-4 vote, along party lines. It will next head to the full House of Representatives. As the debate continues, the words of Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, resonate: “Are they willing to disenfranchise you? Yes. They’ve done it in public. Before, they were trying to do it in private. Now, they’re willing to do it in public.”
The proposed changes to the “Arizona Election Challenge Rules” have sparked a heated debate among lawmakers, activists, and the public. The outcome of this legislative battle could have far-reaching implications for the future of elections in Arizona and potentially across the United States. As the bill moves forward, all eyes will be on the Arizona House of Representatives, where the fate of these proposed changes will be decided.
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