Rep. Mark Finchem used Twitter on Thursday to call for a special session of the Legislature to consider βwhether fraud corrupted our 2020 elections.β
Finchem, of Oro Valley, won reelection in the race that ended Nov. 3, as did his seatmate, Rep. Bret Roberts. Both are Republicans representing Legislative District 11.
Finchem, a retired Kalamazoo, Mich., police officer, has long entertained conspiracy theories. In 2016, for example, he alleged at a meeting of Christians United for Israel that Hezbollah had training camps in northern Mexico and was working with drug traffickers to attack Southern Arizona.
Now he has apparently decided, before even holding the hearing that he was calling for, that Arizonaβs election was fraudulent. He included the hashtag β#stopthestealβ in his Twitter comment, which is the slogan some Trump supporters are using to allege fraud occurred in the presidential election.
No evidence of fraud has been presented in Arizona, and in fact, lawyers for Trump and the GOP have specifically said in court that they are not alleging fraud.
Within three hours of Finchem making the call for a special session, his Twitter account was restricted, though that specific tweet was still visible.
Arizona lawmaker touts email to report election fraud
Arizona now has a tipster email to report possible election fraud.
State Senate President Karen Fann announced the tipster email account set up by the Senate Republican Caucus on Thursday.
The account is set up to βgather documented proof of voting irregularities in the 2020 General Election in Arizona.β
The email will operate until Nov. 27.
Fann said it is intended for Arizonans who have firsthand knowledge of possible fraud.
βWe have heard from constituents across the state concerned about the voting process in Arizona,β Fann said in a news release issued on the same day the state GOP lost another court challenge over the outcome of Biden winning the state.
βThis email account will be a resource for people who are aware of improprieties in Arizonaβs election process. My hope is this will sort out the facts from vague allegations, give us a clear indication of the veracity of the election and begin an effort to ensure voters have confidence in the election system.β
Fann says she will monitor incoming reports and βgather all evidence before the election canvass.β The canvass is set for Nov. 30.
Earlier this month, a fraud hotline setup by the Trump campaign was inundated with prank calls, including one accusing the McDonaldland character, the Hamburglar, of helping steal the election.
McSally delivers her final Senate speech
Outgoing Sen. Martha McSally thanked God, Gov. Doug Ducey, her staff and her constituents in a farewell speech to the Senate on Wednesday.
βServing and fighting for Arizona as a U.S. Senator has been the opportunity of a lifetime,β the former congresswoman and Air Force combat pilot said during her occasionally emotional, 14-minute address.
McSallyβs finale on the Senate floor touched on many of the same themes from her campaign: She praised the Trump administrationβs pandemic response, talked tough on China and touted her role in βrebuilding our militaryβ and confirming βa pioneering Justice, Amy Coney Barrett.β
Before closing with a Bible verse, the Republican appointee offered words of encouragement to the Democrat and fellow Tucsonan who will replace her, perhaps as soon as early December.
βI wish my successor Mark Kelly all the best as he represents our incredible state in this hallowed chamber,β McSally said.
Her speech drew a lengthy round of applause from her Senate colleagues.
Photos: 2020 General Election in Pima County and Arizona
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Judge throws out lawsuit, finds no fraud or misconduct in Arizona election
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PHOENIX β A judge tossed out a bid by the head of the Arizona Republican Party to void the election results that awarded the stateβs 11 electoral votes to Democrat Joe Biden.
The two days of testimony produced in the case brought by GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward produced no evidence of fraud or misconduct in how the vote was conducted in Maricopa County, said Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner in his Friday ruling.
Warner acknowledged that there were some human errors made when ballots that could not be read by machines due to marks or other problems were duplicated by hand.
But he said that a random sample of those duplicated ballots showed an accuracy rate of 99.45%.
Warner said there was no evidence that the error rate, even if extrapolated to all the 27,869 duplicated ballots, would change the fact that Biden beat President Trump.
The judge also threw out charges that there were illegal votes based on claims that the signatures on the envelopes containing early ballots were not properly compared with those already on file.
He pointed out that a forensic document examiner hired by Wardβs attorney reviewed 100 of those envelopes.
And at best, Warner said, that examiner found six signatures to be βinconclusive,β meaning she could not testify that they were a match to the signature on file.
But the judge said this witness found no signs of forgery.
Finally, Warner said, there was no evidence that the vote count was erroneous. So he issued an order confirming the Arizona election, which Biden won with a 10,457-vote edge over Trump.
Federal court case remains to be heard
Fridayβs ruling, however, is not the last word.
Ward, in anticipation of the case going against her, already had announced she plans to seek review by the Arizona Supreme Court.
And a separate lawsuit is playing out in federal court, which includes some of the same claims made here along with allegations of fraud and conspiracy.
That case, set for a hearing Tuesday, also seeks to void the results of the presidential contest.
It includes allegations that the Dominion Software voting equipment used by Maricopa County is unreliable and was programmed to register more votes for Biden than he actually got.
Legislative leaders call for audit but not to change election results
Along the same lines, Senate President Karen Fann and House Speaker Rusty Bowers on Friday called for an independent audit of the software and equipment used by Maricopa County in the just-completed election.
βThere have been questions,β Fann said.
But she told Capitol Media Services it is not their intent to use whatever is found to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election.
In fact, she said nothing in the Republican legislative leadersβ request for the inquiry alleges there are any βirregularitiesβ in the way the election was conducted.
βAt the very least, the confidence in our electoral system has been shaken because of a lot of claims and allegations,β Fann said. βSo our No. 1 goal is to restore the confidence of our voters.β
Bowers specifically rejected calls by the Trump legal team that the Legislature come into session to void the election results, which were formally certified on Monday.
βThe rule of law forbids us to do that,β he said.
In fact, Bowers pointed out, it was the Republican-controlled Legislature that enacted a law three years ago specifically requiring the stateβs electors βto cast their votes for the candidates who received the most votes in the official statewide canvass.β
He said that was done because Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote nationwide in 2016 and some lawmakers feared that electors would refuse to cast the stateβs 11 electoral votes for Trump, who won Arizonaβs race that year.
βAs a conservative Republican, I donβt like the results of the presidential election,β Bowers said in a prepared statement. βBut I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election.β