'Sound-the-alarm moment': AZ GOP senator’s new bill says lawmakers can disregard election results
Arizona, of the seven states where groups of "fake electors" agreed to assist former President Donald Trump with his 2020 election interference ploy, could soon pass a bill that would permit legislators to overturn election results, The Daily Beast reports.
"[I]t is the responsibility of the Arizona Secretary of State to certify elections, including elections for President of the United States, but the sole authority to appoint presidential electors is granted to the Legislature," the legislation, introduced by state Republican Senator Anthony Kern, says. "[T]he Legislature, and no other official, shall appoint presidential electors in accordance with the United States Constitution."
The Beast notes, "A former code enforcement officer in the City of El Mirage, Kern was fired in 2014 for lying to his supervisor about a lost tablet computer. His name was added to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office’s so-called Brady List, a database of police employees with known credibility issues, that same year. (Kern later tried, unsuccessfully, to get his name removed from the list, only to be outed for the brazen attempt in a Phoenix New Times exposé.)"
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Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee national press secretary Sam Paisley told the news outlet, "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 representative. Since 2020, we’ve seen hundreds of Republican legislators across the country willing to support efforts to challenge and overturn election results, but this latest attempt to remove the will of the people from the presidential selection process is one of the gravest threats to democracy we’ve seen yet.”
Paisley emphasized that "Arizona’s Republican caucus as 'a hotbed of MAGA extremism,' and Kern has made no secret of his affinity for the cause," having "attended the Jan. 6, 2021, 'Stop the Steal' rally and subsequent Capitol riot—although he has not been accused of entering the building itself—and allegedly used campaign cash to fund his trip."
The Beast emphasized, "Giving the legislature absolute power to control Arizona’s electoral college votes, regardless of who won the popular vote, would disenfranchise millions of Arizonans."
The Daily Beast's full report is available here (subscription required).
