The Republican chair of the Arizona State House of Representatives, House Ways and Means Committee, on Wednesday introduced a bill authorizing the Legislature to replace the secretary of state’s voting votes.
IDP Representative Shawnna Bolick introduced the bill, which rewrites parts of the state’s election law, such as sections on election observers and the security and audit of ballot papers, among others.
One section gives the Legislature, which is currently under the control of the IDP, the ability to revoke the certification of the Secretary of State ‘at any time by a majority of the votes before the presidential inauguration’.
“The legislature may act under this subsection without regard to whether the legislature is in a regular or special session or has held committees or other hearings on the matter.”
The Arizona Secretary of State was not immediately returned.
The move comes as the Arizona GOP faces an intra-party battle after former President Donald Trump raised unsubstantiated allegations about the election after the state went to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election – for the first time in 24 years that a Democrat won the state.
The state’s GOP also moved to reprimand Cindy McCain, the wife of former Arizona GOP senator John McCain, and former Arizona Jeff Gop senator Jeff Flake. Both supported Biden in the election.
It is unclear how far the bill will go, even in a Republican-controlled House and Senate. Although Kelli Ward, chairwoman of the GOP in Arizona, who has questions about her own re-election to the position, claims that the presidential election was stolen from Trump, other top Republicans have refuted such allegations.
The President of Arizona, Rusty Bowers, a Republican, refuted President Donald Trump’s relentless efforts to stop the election results there, in a sharply worded statement in December 2020. He also rejected the idea of the legislature appointing its own voters to vote for the state’s Electoral College. to Trump.
“I voted for President Trump and worked hard to re-elect him. But I can not and do not want to make a proposal that we violate the current law to change the outcome of a certified election,” he said at the time. .
