"I share your concerns over election fraud, especially the extreme cases in Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, which may cost President Trump reelection. I fully support the lawsuits being brought by the Republican Party and Trump campaign and believe that they are our best chance to prevail due to time constraints because by federal law all election disputes must be resolved by December 8th.
In addition, while I could not attend the informal hearing held on Monday, December 30 because there was not enough room for me, I was able to watch it live online and got a lot of useful information from it.
Because so many problems have been raised in Arizona and so many people have written me, I will address all of the problems here, even if you did not raise each of them. (If I miss one, call my office and I can talk to you.)
Now back to the constraints on legislative action. It is a real problem. In order to take action, the legislature must pass remedy bills because all remedies, even those mandating a more extensive ballot audit or recount, require a majority vote to pass. And while Republicans do hold one-vote majorities in both the Arizona House and Senate, the Arizona constitution states that any bill that we pass does not go into effect for 90 days unless it passes by a super majority vote (2/3rds.)
Consequently, we would need many Democrat legislators to also vote for the bills and because their candidate is winning, I would not count on that. Our hands are tied and we can only change that 90 day rule by amending the Arizona constitution, which requires referral back to the voters and would take two years because such changes can only be voted upon in November of even numbered years. Any reforms that take affect in 90 days would not do anything. It would be too late.
Consequently, the legislature cannot order recounts and audits nor can we choose electors because the Arizona constitution says that the voters choose electors on election day and not the legislature. In addition, we cannot fail to accept the election canvas because it is not sent to us. The election canvas goes to the county supervisors, governor and state Attorney General. We do not certify elections either.
I should note that the legislature has passed election security laws, such as a ban on ballot harvesting, requiring voting machine operability checks before and after voting starts and a mandatory automatic hand count recheck of a random sample of all ballots. Note that this latter hand count is a problem in Maricopa County regarding the way the recount is being conducted and I support the Republican Party lawsuit to correct it. I also support the lawsuit concerning poll workers pressing the "accept button" on the voting machine for bad ballots without explaining to the voters that they could fill the ballot out again without errors. The court is the only way to get a cure for this quickly. Remember the federal deadline of December 8th.
It should also be noted that the Arizona Attorney General quickly and aggressively investigated the issue of Sharpie pens spoiling ballots but concluded that such was not the case, so if you used a Sharpie as I did, it is OK. I have also asked the Attorney General's Elections Integrity Unit, a special fraud unit set up by the legislature, to investigate the latest concern over the software (Dominion) used in voting in Maricopa County.
It is very frustrating for me, as a Trump campaign surrogate and lifetime conservative, to have my hands tied this way, when so much hangs in the balance. Please do not shoot the messenger.
Also, rest assured that we will be passing legislation this session to remedy as many of these problems as we can, including runaway out-of-state campaign contributions mostly from New York and California, mail ballot fraud issues, poor post-election audit procedures and restraints on poll watchers.
Sincerely,
State Representative John Kavanagh
P.S. If you are concerned that your mail ballot was not received and counted, in Maricopa County you can go to the county recorder website and click a button to check. Go to: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/earlyvotingballot/earlyvotingballotstatus.aspx
If you filled out a provisional ballot in Maricopa County, check its status by going to: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/provisionalballotstatus/
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