A Republican state lawmaker from Arizona submitted a bill this week that would grant the state legislature the power to overturn a presidential election result, a move that would effectively disenfranchise voters across the Grand Canyon State.
Rep. Shawnna Bolick (R-Arizona), who chairs the state’s House Ways and Means Committee, submitted a bill on Wednesday that would drastically rewrite the state’s elections laws to give the legislature the authority to override the Secretary of State’s certification of Electoral College votes in presidential races.
The bill would let the legislature overturn certified presidential election results “by majority vote at any time before the presidential inauguration.”
Bolick’s bill appears to be inspired by Arizona’s presidential race in November, in which President Joe Biden narrowly defeated former President Donald Trump. Many Republicans and Trump promoted false allegations of election fraud in the state following Biden’s win, and some elected officials sought to have the legislature overturn the results.
The bill doesn’t have much of a chance of passage, even with Republicans in control of the legislature, as a number of party leaders have refused to back false claims of election fraud.
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who is a Republican, said in December he wouldn’t support efforts by others in his caucus to overturn the election results.
“I voted for President Trump and worked hard to reelect him. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election,” Bowers said at the time.
Some Democratic lawmakers have also vowed to fight the bill if it passes.
“Referendums are expensive but I will raise the money to kill this Democracy killing bill,” State Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), tweeted this week.
In addition to empowering the legislature to disenfranchise the Arizona electorate, Bolick’s bill would also prevent judges from being able to dismiss election lawsuits outright if they were clearly frivolous or without merit. Instead, judges would have to hold jury cases for any election-related lawsuit.
That means baseless claims like “Sharpiegate,” an Arizona-based conspiracy theory spread by Trump supporters which alleged that ballots marked with Sharpie markers were being tossed out, would be allowed to make their case in court.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 98 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy