Analysis: An Arizona Republican just unveiled the most brazen election bill yet
“We should have voting, in my opinion, in person, one day on paper, with no electronic means and hand counting that day,” Fillmore said on Wednesday in support of his bill. “We need to get back to 1958-style voting.”
Uh, ok. Worth noting here: So-called “literacy tests” were still legal in the late 1950s, as were poll taxes. Both measures were aimed at limiting the votes — and influence — of African American voters.
“Under [Fillmore’s] proposal, lawmakers would meet to either ‘accept or reject election results’ following primary and general elections. If legislators reject the results, any qualified voter ‘may file an action in the Superior Court to request that a new election be held,’ according to the bill. Fillmore said lawmakers should possess authority as ‘representatives of the people’ to review the vote count.”
Er, that feels, how to say it, totally un-democratic? The legislature would be able to overturn the election results based only on an ill-defined review of the process? The potential to abjure the will of the people in order to advance a partisan agenda seems vast.
Lest you think Fillmore is on a lonely quest to subvert democracy, well, he’s not. Fifteen Republican legislators have signed on to Fillmore’s bill, including Rep. Mark Finchem, the Trump-endorsed candidate for Arizona secretary of state.
That legislation like this is even proposed, however, speaks to how far down the rabbit hole Republicans have gone when it comes to Trump’s conspiracy theories about the last election.