SB1695defines people had to wait more than 90 minutes outside the polling place whenever they signed an affidavit if preliminary approval for voice voting was given. Therefore, it may not be possible to distinguish between those who were unable to vote and those who waited and finally voted.

And it doesn’t take much.

Just 1,000 disenfranchised affidavits from Maricopa County voters, like those made by Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), will lead judges to order new elections within 60 days is needed.

And to start an election again from a smaller county, we need only 250 affidavits.

In addition, a new ballot will be taken if election officials violate any section of the state elections law or the provisions of the Election Procedures Manual. However, the measure does not detail which violations count or whether even minor violations discard results.

Hoffman said Maricopa County has had problems not only with what happened in 2022, but with field counters not being able to read ballots printed there. The result was long lines, complicated by the fact that Arizona Republican officials told voters to bring their early ballots to the polling place instead of mailing them in, resulting in longer wait times. rice field.

“Over the past six, eight, 10 cycles, we’ve seen a gradual decline in the quality of elections going on in Maricopa County,” he said. Told.

“There’s an issue that’s happening in Pima County, and there’s an issue that’s happening in Pinal County for multiple elections in a row,” Hoffman said. “And it is unfair to the people of this state that county elected officials, county election officials, have repeatedly violated the law and gone unpunished.”

A move by lawmakers to establish a legal process to overturn future elections, an organization that helped finance an “audit” of the 2020 elections has now been accused of accusing Kari Lake of having stolen the charges. It happens as we try to help overturn the 2022 gubernatorial ballot.

In a new filing, Tucson attorney David Hardy told the Arizona Supreme Court that the outcome of the election would have been different had the lower courts not agreed to admit “numerous violations of law and procedure.” It is said that it will be. review. “

He said a survey of people who said they had voted in November 2022 showed Lake outperformed Hobbes by 8 percent, according to a Rasmussen report that backs conservative claims. I quoted a “late exit poll”.

“Leaving such elections unexamined undermines public confidence in them and gives those who run future elections permission to manipulate the rules at will,” Hardy said. Stated.

He represents a coalition of groups including America’s Future, led by President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Flynn, who was found guilty of lying to the FBI about his contact with the Russian ambassador, was pardoned by Trump in late 2020.

Flynn also said in December 2020 that Trump should impose martial law to overturn the results of the 2020 race won by Joe Biden, and in the battleground states Trump lost (possibly including Arizona). He also said the military should be deployed to “redo the elections.”

America’s Future donated over $976,000 to Cyber ​​Ninjas in 2021. It’s a company with no election auditing experience, hired by then-Senate Speaker Karen Huang to recount votes in the 2020 presidential and U.S. Senate elections.

Other members of the coalition trying to overturn the election include US public advocates. The Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund that opposed the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. and the Legal Defense Fund of U.S. Constitutional Rights.

In pursuing SB 1695, Hoffman argues that a candidate cannot force a judge to accept a legal argument and overturn an election.

“Apparently today, the courts, the administrators of the law, no longer take the law seriously,” he said. And that’s why legislators need to step in and set up automated procedures to hold future elections again, Hoffman said.

A Queen Creek lawmaker was particularly outraged about wait times he said exceeded two hours at some polling places. And he said they’re accepting numbers provided by Maricopa County, but that takes into account the time between signing in and being able to vote, not the time they go out.

This echoes Lake’s legal claim that the long lines resulted in voter suppression, as some people walked away in despondency. And she claims most of the people who showed up on her election day would have voted for her instead of Katie Hobbs.

Hoffmann reiterated that suppression claim, but took a different view.

“Honestly, I could find examples of what happened in Maricopa did exactly what was done to voters in the Jim Crow-era South.” .”

It is not clear what it takes for the number of allegedly disenfranchised voters to trigger new elections.

As rigged, within five days after the election, voters are required to submit an affidavit stating that they “waited outside for more than 90 minutes before completing and submitting their ballot.” Votes are counted.

If there are enough affidavits (1,000 in Maricopa County and 250 in other counties), the judge will have the affidavits examined by a “special master” certified in another county’s electoral process. to determine its credibility.

At that point, the court will declare it a “failed election,” forbid the overseer to certify the vote, and order a new ballot within 60 days to be run by that special master. instruct to

The same results would occur if violations of election laws or manuals of election procedures were found, but nothing was said about how serious or technical the oversight might be.

Likewise for failing to maintain the “chain of custody” of ballots, which Lake claims goes far beyond the 17,117 votes lost to Hobbes when illegal ballots were inserted into the system. It is one of the claims that

“It’s our job to instill confidence in both the process and the results,” Hoffman said.

“But when it’s clear that you’re disenfranchising voters and disenfranchising voters, it shouldn’t be allowed,” Hoffman said.

Democratic Tempe Senator Juan Mendes said the law was flawed.

“This proposal would allow any number of subjective claims, most likely misunderstandings about how elections work, to overturn the election.” It just denies sex.”

Aside from questions about what constitutes disenfranchisement, Tucson Democratic Senator Priya Sundareshan said there were logistical problems with Hoffman’s proposal.

She pointed out that state law sets deadlines for the ballot’s official “canvas.” Sundareshan questioned what would happen if votes from one or more counties were missing.

It nearly happened last year after Cochise County supervisors were reluctant to prove their vote there. This led Hobbes to argue that the statewide canvas must continue without Cochise’s vote, effectively disenfranchising anyone who voted in the county.

None of that was required after the board went ahead with certification in the face of a court order.

The bill will await a final vote in the Senate before it goes to the House. If approved there, it must be signed by Hobbs before it becomes effective.