Senate Government Committee Goes Down The QAnon Rabbit Hole With Rep. Filmore’s ‘Big Lie’ Election Denier Bill

by

Update to Zombie ‘Big Lie’ Election Denier Bill Raised From The Dead By QAnon Queen Sen. Kelly Townsend.

The QAnon Queen and her fellow MAGA/QAnon cult members on the Senate Government Committee went down the QAnon rabbit hole of election denier conspiracy theories on Monday, citing the Arizona Senate’s GQP sham “fraudit” conducted by QAnon conspiracy theorists as “evidence.”

Howard Fischer reports, Arizona Senate panel votes to require all ballots be hand counted:

A Senate panel voted late Monday to require all ballots be counted by hand, despite the concession by one Republican who supported it that it just can’t be done.

The action by the Government Committee came after various people [MAGA/QAnon cult members] testified about what they contend was fraud in the 2020 election when the official tally showed more Arizonans voted for Joe Biden than Donald Trump. Many Republicans have refused to accept the results despite the fact that various claims of irregularities have either been debunked outright or failed to gather corroborating evidence.

House Bill 2289 is a grab-bag of proposed changes to election laws, but there are two key provisions.

One would eliminate the opportunity of most Arizonans to cast early ballots, despite the fact that nearly 90% of those who voted in 2020 used that option. Instead, that right would be reserved for those who are in hospitals, nursing homes and those who would be out of state on Election Day.

Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler [the sponsor of multiple GQP Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression bills], said he has no problem with that. He has questioned the on-demand early voting that has been the law in Arizona since 1991, saying it doesn’t have the kind of checks that occur when someone shows up at the polls and has to present identification. Instead, current law requires only that the person sign the outside of the ballot envelope, with that signature compared with others the county election officials have on file.

But Mesnard said he is having real heartburn with the other key provision: Having all ballots counted by hand, at each polling place, within 24 hours of the polls being closed at 7 p.m.

“I am having a harder time with the math,” he said.

Mesnard figures that every ballot has 70 or more individual races, from president or governor down through congressional, legislative and local offices as well as judges and various initiative measures. That means, he said, there would be something like 200 million individual races to be tabulated in Maricopa County alone.

“I don’t see how that is possible,” he said.

And Mesnard, who teaches political science courses at Arizona State University and Mesa Community College, said that’s why he relies on machines to tabulate the results of certain tests.

But Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction, who wrote the bill, contends it is possible — with enough people.

First, he would nearly double the number of voting precincts [this is expensive, and his bill provides no state funding for counties to contract for more precinct voting sites – it is an unfunded mandate]. That, in turn, would limit the number of ballots cast at each location where the tallying would occur.

That, however, means more election workers to staff each of those locations, to say nothing of the number of people needed to actually handle each ballot and tally each race. Fillmore said it’s worth it [but he doesn’t pay for it], saying it about “our country’s integrity and what people fought for in World War II.”

Mesnard agreed to vote for the measure — and provide the critical fourth vote in the seven-member committee — after being assured that Fillmore is willing to consider alterations before it goes to the full Senate.

Fillmore wasn’t willing to voice conspiracy theories to line up the votes the bill needs.

Howie, Fillmore’s BIG Lie election denier bill is a grab-bag of conspiracy theories!

Whether or not election fraud occurred in 2020 is irrelevant, he told lawmakers. “This is an issue of voter confidence.”

Nor, Fillmore said, is it a partisan issue.

“This problem’s not a President Biden problem, this is not a President Trump problem,” he said. “This is a problem of concern by the citizens, Joe Sixpack and Mary Lou on the block, that they need to know their voting counts and there is the integrity of it.”

However, [QAnon cult member election denier] Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, contended “voter fraud is a huge problem” [without evidence.] She predicted dire consequences — and election of the wrong people [she means Democrats] — unless something is done.

Oh, her district definitely did elect the wrong person in the last election (with the help of $500,000 from Governor Ducey’s PAC).

“I’m afraid if we don’t fix our elections now we won’t be able to save our republic because the cheating will be so great that we [Republicans] won’t be able to have the votes in our Legislature to fix it,” Rogers said.

So she is concerned that Democrats will take control of the Arizona Legislature unless Republicans find new and creative ways to suppress their voters to ensure a perpetual tyranny of the minority of authoritarian Republican control.

[The QAnon Queen election denier] Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Apache Junction, rejected claims by some that killing off on-demand early voting [something Arizona has done for 30 years] amounts to voter suppression.

“Voter suppression is where you cast your vote and it is negated by someone else’s vote who has cheated,” she said. “We’re not trying to keep people from voting. We are trying to keep people from cheating.”

This is utter nonsense. Here is one definition of “voter suppression” from Britannica (excerpt):

Voter suppression, in U.S. history and politics, any legal or extralegal measure or strategy whose purpose or practical effect is to reduce voting, or registering to vote, by members of a targeted racial group, political party, or religious community. The overwhelming majority of victims of voter suppression in the United States have been African Americans.

[M]ost contemporary instances of voter suppression have taken place in Republican-controlled states. The usual justification offered for such measures is that they help to ensure the integrity of elections by preventing individual voter fraud, which Republicans typically claim is a serious problem. As Democratic critics have pointed out, however, individual voter fraud in the United States is nearly nonexistent. The real purpose of restrictive voting laws, they insist, is to enable Republicans to win office or to stay in power in jurisdictions where they lack the support of a majority of the voting-age population.

[R]epublicans in state legislatures across the country introduced more than 350 bills designed to roll back pandemic-related changes to election procedures and to further restrict voting access in ways that would disproportionately affect minorities, young people, and other Democratic-leaning constituencies. Sponsors of the new restrictions defended them by citing Trump’s patently false assertion that Democrats had stolen the presidential election through massive voter fraud. The bills included new limits on obtaining or casting mail-in ballots, stricter voter ID requirements, additional restrictions on voter registration, prohibitions of ballot collection and delivery by third parties, reductions in early-voting periods, and legislation that would grant poll watchers greater autonomy and closer access to voters and poll workers, thereby increasing the likelihood of voter intimidation and election interference at polling stations. Some bills even criminalized the act of giving food or water to people waiting for hours in long voting lines.

[M]any of the bills would also give partisan state legislatures significant control over election administration while reducing the traditional administrative authorities of the executive branch and of state and local (county or municipal) election boards.

Think I’m kidding?

https://twitter.com/pica_papitas/status/1497581359698612233

And just to be clear, Republicans ARE in fact trying to keep people from voting. They have convinced themselves that only white Christian nationalist Republicans are legitimate voters, and everyone else who votes is thus illegitimate and must be fraudulent. It is this authoritarian mindset which justifies their abuse of power.

The measure faces an uncertain future when it goes to the full Senate, because it needs the support of all 16 Republican senators.

Aside from Mesnard wanting changes in the hand-count measure, at least two other GOP senators have voted against changes in election laws that they say are unnecessary. [Paul Boyer and Michelle Ugenti Rita.]

Even if it survives the Senate, the bill still needs to go to the House, which has not considered its contents. House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, effectively killed Fillmore’s original proposal by assigning it to all 12 standing committees, creating an impossible hurdle.

And while HB 2289 would not require House committee action, it will be up to Speaker Bowers to decide whether to bring it to the full House.

Speaker Bowers should ensure that this MAGA/QAnon Big Lie fever dream never sees the light of day in the House.





Discover more from Blog for Arizona

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

2 thoughts on “Senate Government Committee Goes Down The QAnon Rabbit Hole With Rep. Filmore’s ‘Big Lie’ Election Denier Bill”

  1. But wait, there’s more! Jeremy Duda tweets, https://twitter.com/jeremyduda/status/1506036589079584772?cxt=HHwWiICj7YyTwuYpAAAA

    Here we go again. @AZKellyT said in today’s Senate Government Committee meeting that she’ll issue subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors over allegations that they haven’t turned over information requested by the AG’s Office.

    Excuuuse me? The QAnon Cyber Ninjas guy hasn’t turned over his documents that two courts have ordered him to turn over, for which he is accruing huge fines for contempt of court.

    Our partisan hack attorney general “Nuncchuks,” like the QAnon Queen, is also relying on the bogus conspiracy theories of Shiva Ayyadurai. Jeremy Duda tweets, https://twitter.com/jeremyduda/status/1505710578030899201

    The AG’s Office is now citing the “findings” of Shiva Ayyadurai, who claimed a bunch of signatures on ballot affidavits didn’t match the ones on record, even though he admits he wasn’t even comparing them to the same signatures that election officials used for verification.

    Brahm Resnik adds, https://twitter.com/brahmresnik/status/1505723808854032397?cxt=HHwWmoC-yfL0s-UpAAAA

    Jennifer Wright, the assistant AG citing the ‘findings,’ was an interesting choice to run Brnovich’s ‘election integrity’ unit. “#BattlegroundAZ: AG hires GOP poll watcher to police state’s ‘elections integrity'”, https://www.12news.com/article/news/battlegroundaz/75-3deabf8f-4cb5-4bc6-9fb0-f5f1d70a8c94

    Attorney Jennifer Wright, a former Tea Party candidate for Phoenix mayor who more recently was involved in GOP poll-watching activities, is now an assistant attorney general.

    Wright was involved with a Republican-allied group called Verify the Vote, which trained poll watchers.

    Democrats claim the group focused only on areas with large Hispanic turnouts.

  2. Laurie Roberts writes at the Arizona Republic, “GOP senators take first step to kill early voting in Arizona (at their own risk)”, https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2022/03/21/gop-senators-want-kill-early-voting-arizona-what-genius-plan/7123391001/

    A state Senate committee on Monday voted to end Arizona’s wildly popular, decades-old early voting program.

    Henceforth and forevermore, Republicans would like all Arizona voters to stand in hours-long lines if they want to participate in our elections. Won’t that be especially fun during those early August primaries when the temperature floats somewhere between gas-fired grill and the jaws of hell?

    Instead of a literacy test, we’re going with a fitness test.

    Bowers buried the bill. Townsend revived it

    This genius idea is brought to us by none other than Rep. John Fillmore, the Apache Junction legislator who longs for a return to the days of “1958-style voting.”

    Fortunately, House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, isn’t all that nostalgic about those good old days when literacy tests and poll taxes were used to keep certain people from having a vote. Bowers assigned Fillmore’s bill to enough committees that it never should have seen the light of day.

    Enter Sen. Kelly Townsend. This Apache Junction Republican revived her seatmate’s proposal on Monday by attaching it to an already passed House bill and hearing it in her Senate Government Committee, where it passed on a party line vote.

    Fillmore assured committee members that House Bill 2289 isn’t about denying anyone a vote. He also would like us to believe that it also isn’t about the results of the 2020 election.

    “Whether or not election fraud occurred in 2020 is irrelevant,” he said, during Monday’s hearing. “This is an issue of voter confidence.”

    Which, I might point out, was destroyed by some of the very people on this panel – senators who continue even now to spread the lie that Arizona’s election was stolen despite their own audit that turned up no evidence of widespread fraud.

    What if votes aren’t hand-counted in 24 hours?

    In addition to ending the state’s three-decade-old early voting program, Fillmore’s bill would require all votes to be counted by hand and the results to be finalized within 24 hours of the polls closing.

    No word on how poll workers would get an accurate hand count of dozens of races from millions of ballots and all within 24 hours.

    Or on whether there would be any audits to double-check those hand counts, which elections experts will tell you are notoriously less accurate than machine tabulations.

    Or on what happens to any ballots that aren’t counted before the 24-hour window slams shut. I guess those voters are just out of luck.

    As are all voters who can’t get to the polls on Election Day, either because they have childcare issues or transportation issues or work issues or physical issues that don’t allow them to spend hours in line waiting to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

    And it will be hours, when you consider that nearly 90% of the more than three million Arizonans who voted in 2020 voted by mail.

    GOP claims this won’t disenfranchise anyone LoL!

    Republicans on Townsend’s panel, however, insisted that this bill won’t disenfranchise so much as a single person.

    “We’re confusing convenience with the right to vote,” Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, said.

    Actually, that’s not what’s happening at all.

    Arizona has had an early voting program for three decades. Republicans early on took advantage of it to boost turnout. But in 2020, a record number of Democrats also cast early ballots.

    And Donald Trump lost.

    Now, suddenly, a program that was previously a national model is a hotbed of corruption.

    Now, suddenly, the Arizona Republican Party is suing to end the program, declaring it unconstitutional, and Filmore’s bill – one of easily more than a hundred bills proposed to “reform” our elections – has been given new life.

    Bill is revived, but don’t expect it to live long

    But it’s probably not going to be a terribly long life.

    First, the bill has to get through the full Senate, where there is not a single Republican vote to spare. And Sen. Paul Boyer, R-Glendale, has been killing bad election bills, right and left.

    If, by some miracle he’s a yes, look for Gov. Doug Ducey to veto it. He called the state GOP’s lawsuit to end early voting “ill-conceived and poorly crafted” and noted that “it would undo the work of many Republican governors and secretaries of state over the past several decades.”

    If, by some miracle, Ducey signs it, look for a referendum to put it on the ballot where voters – most of whom cast early ballots – will decide whether it’s a good idea to end their right to vote from the comfort of their kitchen table.

    And possibly, to end the legislators who voted to end their right to vote from the comfort of their kitchen table.

    Talk about your genius get-out-the-vote drives …

    Who voted to kill early voting?

    Voting to kill the state’s early voting program: Republican Sens. Kelly Townsend of Apache Junction, Sonny Borrelli of Lake Havasu City, Wendy Rogers of Flagstaff and J.D. Mesnard of Chandler.

    Voting to keep the early voting program: Democrats Martín Quezada of Glendale, Sally Gonzales of Tucson and Theresa Hatathlie of Coal Mine Canyon.

Comments are closed.