Arizona House Speaker refuses to recall legislature to choose electors
The election has been stolen: Rusty Bowers, Arizona Republican House Speaker, has now categorically declared that he “cannot and will not” recall the legislature to review the election results and choose electors based on that, despite the Constitution’s clear language that gives the state legislature that full power.
He noted that such an action would violate the oath lawmakers took to uphold the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions, along with, “the basic principles of republican government and the rule of law if we attempted to nullify the people’s vote based on unsupported theories of fraud. Under the laws that we wrote and voted upon, Arizona voters choose who wins, and our system requires that their choice be respected.”
Bowers did, however, support an audit of the voting machines in Maricopa County to assuage concerns of tampering, but that call wasn’t taken up by Republican county officials who run elections.
So what will Bowers do if that audit discovers enough vote tampering and cheating to make the entire election suspect and unreliable? Will he, as so many Republican leaders do over and over, shake his head, whine how terrible it is, but he can do nothing? That’s what Republican leaders have been doing for decades, which of course now brings us to this moment.
Note too that Bowers is entirely wrong. Though it is traditional to let the voters decide, the actual words of the Constitution puts the decision with the state legislature. Period. It is Bowers’ responsibility by law to act.
If he does not use his power, as outlined in the Constitution (which by the way is the supreme law of the land), do not expect many Republicans to be elected in future years. First, Democrats are basically being told they have carte blanche to cheat, and cheat they will. It is also clear that the Republican leadership in the state house seems totally sanguine about the way the vote was run, and will likely do nothing to fix it come the next legislature. It took enormous pressure to get Bowers to even request this one audit of Maricopa County. He really does not appear very interested in identifying the problems and fixing them.
Second, why should anyone vote for any Republican, when it is clear they will not do anything?
With the last bit of optimism I have left, below are the phone numbers for the Republican leadership in the Arizona state legislature. If you live in Arizona, call them and tell them they are abdicating their responsibility as lawmakers. More importantly, tell them they are contributing to the fall of the American democracy by their inaction.
- Senate President: Karen Fann, 602-926-5874
- Senate Majority leader: Rick Gray, 602-926-5413
- Speaker of the House: Russell Bowers, 602-926-3128
- House Majority leader: Warren Petersen, 602-926-4136
The election has been stolen: Rusty Bowers, Arizona Republican House Speaker, has now categorically declared that he “cannot and will not” recall the legislature to review the election results and choose electors based on that, despite the Constitution’s clear language that gives the state legislature that full power.
He noted that such an action would violate the oath lawmakers took to uphold the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions, along with, “the basic principles of republican government and the rule of law if we attempted to nullify the people’s vote based on unsupported theories of fraud. Under the laws that we wrote and voted upon, Arizona voters choose who wins, and our system requires that their choice be respected.”
Bowers did, however, support an audit of the voting machines in Maricopa County to assuage concerns of tampering, but that call wasn’t taken up by Republican county officials who run elections.
So what will Bowers do if that audit discovers enough vote tampering and cheating to make the entire election suspect and unreliable? Will he, as so many Republican leaders do over and over, shake his head, whine how terrible it is, but he can do nothing? That’s what Republican leaders have been doing for decades, which of course now brings us to this moment.
Note too that Bowers is entirely wrong. Though it is traditional to let the voters decide, the actual words of the Constitution puts the decision with the state legislature. Period. It is Bowers’ responsibility by law to act.
If he does not use his power, as outlined in the Constitution (which by the way is the supreme law of the land), do not expect many Republicans to be elected in future years. First, Democrats are basically being told they have carte blanche to cheat, and cheat they will. It is also clear that the Republican leadership in the state house seems totally sanguine about the way the vote was run, and will likely do nothing to fix it come the next legislature. It took enormous pressure to get Bowers to even request this one audit of Maricopa County. He really does not appear very interested in identifying the problems and fixing them.
Second, why should anyone vote for any Republican, when it is clear they will not do anything?
With the last bit of optimism I have left, below are the phone numbers for the Republican leadership in the Arizona state legislature. If you live in Arizona, call them and tell them they are abdicating their responsibility as lawmakers. More importantly, tell them they are contributing to the fall of the American democracy by their inaction.
- Senate President: Karen Fann, 602-926-5874
- Senate Majority leader: Rick Gray, 602-926-5413
- Speaker of the House: Russell Bowers, 602-926-3128
- House Majority leader: Warren Petersen, 602-926-4136