Senate Republicans hatch a new scheme to overturn Arizona's elections

Corrections & clarifications: A previous version of the column misstated the county where Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, lives. It is Maricopa County.

-

Just when you think it’s safe to assume that our leaders have exhausted the many creative ways in which they hope to overturn the results of future elections they don’t like, they come up with a new scheme to undermine democracy.

To wit: An automatic do-over of any election in which 1,000 voters in Maricopa County (or 250 in any other county) had to wait in line for more than 90 minutes.

Doesn’t matter if those voters actually got to vote. If enough of them had to wait at least 90 minutes, they can order up a new election.

Sure, what could go wrong?

Bill is latest bad bills from Freedom Caucus leader

Senate Bill 1695 comes courtesy of Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek and former fake elector who is pitching his latest brainstorm as a way to eliminate the legions of disenfranchised voters in 2022 that no one has been able to find.

“The stuff that happened in Maricopa County,” Hoffman told the Senate Government Committee last month. “Honest to God, I could find you examples from the Jim Crow era where in the South they did exactly what was done to day-of voters, they did that to Black people in the South.”

Funny, I missed the poll taxes and literacy tests in last year’s election. What I saw was Republicans directed by their own party to ditch their early ballots and instead vote on Election Day, resulting in long lines. Add in sloppy work by the county – wherein far too many printer malfunctions lead to even longer lines at the polls – and you had a mess.

Pretty low bar to contest and overturn an election

What you didn’t have, according to county elections officials and the conclusions of several judges – was any evidence that masses of disenfranchised voters cost Kari Lake the election.

SB 1695 sets up a process where a county must redo an election if at least 1,000 Maricopa County voters (or 250 elsewhere) file sworn affidavits in Superior Court, saying “I waited more than ninety minutes outside of a voting location before I could complete and submit my ballot.”

In the alternative, they could swear that an election official failed to comply with any single provision of the 640-page Elections Procedures Manual, presumably either a technical or a major violation. Or they could swear that they witnessed a failure to maintain a ballot’s chain of custody.

A special master, appointed by the court, would have five days to verify those claims. There’s no explanation of how this supposed expert could prove when a particular voter got in line.

A Republican votes no to stop the madness – for now

And there’s nothing in the bill to stop a voter who actually voted in the 91st minute from demanding a new election if they didn't like the results.

Get 1,000 of those people in Maricopa (or 250 elsewhere) and you, too, can demand do-over in your county, which would have to be held within 60 days of a judge declaring a “failed election."

The bill passed the Government Committee on a party-line vote but failed in the House when Sen. Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, sided with Democrats to oppose it. Hoffman already has signaled he plans to bring it back.

“It is unfair to the people of this state that county elections officials can violate the law repeatedly and not be held to account,” Hoffman said.

It would be, if there was actual evidence that any elections official violated the law. But I digress.

You know what’s also unfair?

That 1,000 people who had to wait 91 minutes to cast a ballot could nullify the votes of 1.5 million voters.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.