An Arizona lawmaker who signed on to be a “fake elector” for Donald Trump after the former president lost his bid for a second term has introduced a bill that would allow members of the statehouse to overturn future election results that they don’t like.
The bill, formally known as Senate Concurrent Resolution 1014 and sponsored by state Sen. Anthony Kern, seeks to bypass the popular vote altogether.
“[I]t is the responsibility of the Arizona Secretary of State to certify elections, including elections for President of the United States, but the sole authority to appoint presidential electors is granted to the Legislature,” the four-line bill reads. Therefore, it concludes, “[T]he Legislature, and no other official, shall appoint presidential electors in accordance with the United States Constitution.”
Giving the legislature absolute power to control Arizona’s electoral college votes, regardless of who won the popular vote, would disenfranchise millions of Arizonans.
I highly doubt this would ever pass its clearly just insane. It’s basically asking for a civil war in Arizona to start…
I’m not saying it’s not batshit insane, but is it any worse than the “where’s your papers, brown person?” “Immigration” law from the same state?
I wouldn’t put it past Arizona Republicans to pass this.
They can’t pass anything alone. This is performative bullshit for fascists.
Yes, it’s worse. One authoritarian policy is bad, but the scope of the damage is limited. The damage caused by undermining democracy enables an unlimited amount of authoritarian policies.
Hmm, good point. When you put like that, I agree.
Gee, I distinctly remember a certain group doing similar “Papers, please” stops awhile back. And they held a lot of similar views, too… Hmm
Exactly.
Whether it would pass is beside the point. The fact that a lawmaker had the inclination, let alone the audacity, to introduce it in the first place – and especially that he hasn’t immediately been forced to resign as a result – is 1000% a severe indictment of how diseased our society has become.
I wouldn’t put that above us. This state is so red they could effortlessly pull off the mental gymnastics necessary to turn this into a win for the people. Anyone on Lemmy that lives in Arizona needs to start protesting on the weekends. Make this the second city that doesn’t sleep, because our legislature can’t keep the boards on their windows intact.