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Disturbing Bill Would Let Arizona Legislators Ignore Election Results (www.thedailybeast.com)

submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

The Supreme Court would be all over this. No way this could actually become law. Not even remotely.

The Constitution has already left it to the states to pick their own elector by whatever means that state chooses. I wrote a much more detailed comment in a prior discussion if you're interested, but put simply, Article 2 of the US Constitution is what governs the election of the executive branch (the president). Specifically, Clause 2:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress

Individual voters do not elect the President. The Electoral College does. The states use the votes of individual voters to appoint its Electors, and then the Electors go to Congress and have their votes counted.

Incidentally, this is why Trump was desperate to get Pence out of the way on January 6, as the Vice President is the President of the Senate and without him, there is no constitutional transfer of power. See Clause 3:

The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted.

There's really nothing for the Supreme Court to decide here, because constitutionally Arizona gets to pick its own electors however it wants, UNLESS someone challenges Arizona and makes it the Supreme Court's business to offer a ruling.

this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024

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