Arizona's Right Wing Sought Power to Overturn Votes. Rusty Bowers Said No.

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The New York Times
@nytimes
The speaker of the Republican-controlled Arizona House — who supported Donald Trump in 2020 — just torpedoed a bill that would have let lawmakers reject the results of an election.
Rusty Bowers, speaker of the Arizona House, killed a bill that would have given the Republican-controlled Legislature the power to unilaterally overturn the results of an election.
nytimes.com

Arizona’s Right Wing Sought Power to Overturn Votes. Rusty Bowers Said No.
The speaker of the Republican-controlled Arizona House — who supported Donald J. Trump in 2020 — just torpedoed a bill that would have let lawmakers reject the results of an election.
7:00 PM · Feb 4, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/politics/arizona-republicans-rusty-bowers-voting-rights.html

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By sending Fillmore’s legislation to not one but 12 committees, effectively dooming it, he was also sending an unmistakable message about the direction of his party — a G.O.P. that is unrecognizably different from what it was back when Goldwater-style conservatism itself represented an insurgency.

Fillmore’s bill would have eliminated early voting altogether and mandated that all ballots be counted by hand.

Voting Rights Lab, a nonprofit group that tracks election laws, called it “one of the most comprehensive attacks on nonpartisan election administration and voter access that we have seen.”

Most troubling, to voting rights advocates and independent experts, was a provision that would have empowered the Arizona Legislature to “accept or reject the election results” and given a single elector the power to demand that a fresh election be held.

And while the bill was never likely to become law, it was an expression of what Barnes called a “cathartic moment” for the Republican Party. “And I think Rusty is not excited about that,” he said.

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