Arizona Bill Allows Legislature To Reject Election Results

Democracy Docket reports:

Since the 2022 Arizona legislative session began on Jan. 10, Republican lawmakers have introduced a slew of restrictive voting bills, including an omnibus bill that subverts nonpartisan election administration. House Bill 2596, introduced last Friday, would eliminate early voting, no-excuse mail-in voting (which the state has had since 1991) and emergency voting centers.

H.B. 2596 would also ban the use of electronic voting machines and require all ballots to be counted by hand. The bill adds a new section to Arizona’s elections code titled “Legislative session; review; legislative election audit.” Critically, this new provision gives the partisan state Legislature the ultimate authority to “accept or reject the election results” and allow any elector to request a new election be held.

Photo: Sponsor Rep. John Fillmore, who last appeared on JMG when he compared trans people to farm animals.

Last Friday, the Arizona House introduced HB 2596 – one of the most extreme pieces of legislation we’ve seen.

Most alarmingly, it would allow the legislature to reject election results and allow any elector to request a new election.

More in #TheMarkup: https://t.co/qMaA57dO5T

— Voting Rights Lab (@votingrightslab) January 25, 2022

?ALERT: Republican lawmakers in Arizona have introduced multiple voter suppression bills this month that would:
❌Allow the state legislature to reject election results
❌Ban drop boxes
❌Prohibit vote centers
❌Eliminate no-excuse mail voting and more.https://t.co/D8la7HsKs2

— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) January 25, 2022