PHOENIX β An Arizona legislator has introduced a measure designed to give President Trump the stateβs 11 electoral votes, as some GOP lawmakers in D.C. try to keep Congress from certifying the election for Joe Biden on Wednesday, Jan 6.
Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, is attempting to get a majority of lawmakers from the state House and Senate to approve a resolution βand quickly β saying that the general election βwas marred by irregularities so significant as to render it highly doubtful whether the certified results accurately represent the will of the voters.β
The certified results, upheld by judges, show Biden won Arizonaβs popular vote by 10,457 votes.
Townsend acknowledges that the 11 Democratic electors already cast their votes for President-elect Biden on Dec. 14.
But she contends the U.S. Constitution still gives the Legislature the power to βexercise its best judgment as to which state of electors the voters prefer.β According to her, thatβs the 11 Republican would-be βelectorsβ who would have voted for Trump on Dec. 14 if the president had won Arizonaβs popular vote.
Legal questions aside, the move comes late.
Lawmakers do not come into session until Monday, Jan. 11. And if the congressional count is completed Wednesday or by the end of the week, any vote by Arizona legislators to change electors would be legally meaningless.
But Townsendβs proposal is built on two presumptions. The first is that Trump supporters in Congress will find a way to delay the official count. That could take the form of refusing to accept the electoral votes from so-called βdisputedβ states, unless and until there is an audit in each state of the tally.
That dovetails with the bid by Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, to subpoena election materials from Maricopa County for an audit.
Townsend said her resolution is ready for action βif the audit is completed before the 20th,β referring to the day this month that Biden is set to be sworn in. βWe will have to watch it all play out,β she said.
However, the Legislature already spelled out in statute that it is the voters who choose the electors, and its attorneys say the rules canβt be retroactively changed for the 2020 election.
Also, a separate law adopted in 2017 requires presidential electors to cast their votes for the presidential and vice president candidates who jointly received the most votes according to the official statewide canvass. Any elector who does not cast a ballot according to the popular vote is automatically removed from office.
Meanwhile Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court threw out the last remaining legal challenge in state courts to the presidential election results. The plaintiff, Pinal County resident Staci Burk, was not registered to vote in 2020 so lacked standing to sue, the justices said.
