A letter Monday from the Arizona Senate Majority Leader to all 15 counties in the state sparked confusion over whether Arizona counties can continue to use machines to count ballots in future elections. ing.
Letter from Senator Sonny BorelliHowever, nothing will change about existing laws governing election equipment.
Borrelli’s letter told county leaders that a resolution passed by Congress earlier this year would allow major federal elections to be held unless the system meets certain criteria (the criteria currently used in electoral systems). It bans the use of “electronic voting systems” as a method. Arizona is not currently held.
But Borelli’s claim is not true. The resolution has no legal force and the law has not yet changed. Borrelli wrote the letter himself, not on behalf of the Senate majority Republicans. And according to Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, counties will continue to follow state and federal laws governing how elections are conducted.
This may seem a little strange and complicated, but it is. Let him ask one question at a time.
Republicans in the House and Senate passed so-called bills. Simultaneous Senate Resolution in a partisan poll in March.
A resolution of this kind is simply an expression of the opinion of Congress. It is not intended to change or override any state law. Unlike a bill or ballot referendum, it does not leave final approval of legislation to the governor or voters.
Resolution SCR 1037 declared the legislature concerned about the security of the electronic voting system. It said electronic voting systems cannot be used as the primary method of “conducting, counting, tallying and verifying” federal elections in the state unless: It is made in the USA and certified according to US Department of Defense regulations. The source code is open to the public. In addition, certain data will be published within 24 hours after the close of voting.
they tried. Republicans in both houses of Congress passed Senate Bill 1074, which contained similar language to the resolution, but Democrat and former Secretary of State Gov. Katie Hobbs said: The power of veto was invoked on April 6.“Neither the electoral equipment this bill requires nor the problem this bill seeks to solve exists,” he said.
“This bill will not strengthen our democracy, nor will it allow Arizonans to better exercise their basic voting rights,” she wrote.
In summary, Mr. Borelli said in the letter that the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures final say over how elections are conducted.
By passing the resolution, he said, lawmakers are exercising “plenary” or near-absolute authority to decide “when, where and how” elections will be held. is.
He invokes the so-called “legislative independence theory” here. On hold in the U.S. Supreme Court moore vs harper, a case related to the redistrict of North Carolina.this hypothesisIn its broadest form, the U.S. Constitution contends that it gives state legislatures broad powers to determinetime, place, mannermakes federal election decisions without the usual checks, such as review by state courts and the governor’s veto power under the state constitution.
they can ignore it. The resolution is “non-binding and non-enforceable,” it said. Fontes said in a statement on Monday.added that election tools must be certified under requirements set by federal and state law.
“If these requirements or the certification process were to change, a regular bill would have to pass through Congress and be signed by the governor, but that is not the case with this non-binding resolution,” Fontes wrote.
Maricopa County Oversight Commissioner Clint Hickman said in a statement that the letter came from Borrelli personally, not from a group of Republican lawmakers, and that individual lawmakers “have enacted laws or had other branches of government violate state law.” “I can’t tell you to take action,” he said.
“While I advocate sourcing U.S.-made machinery and parts, until that is practical, the oversight board will apply the funds necessary to obtain certified equipment,” Hickman said. Stated.
Neither Republican Senate Speaker Warren Petersen nor Republican House Speaker Ben Thoma responded to VoteBeat’s questions about whether they supported Mr. Borrelli’s letter or the arguments therein.
Since former President Donald Trump began falsely claiming that voting machines scrambled votes in favor of President Joe Biden and jeopardized the 2020 presidential election, his supporters are safer with hand counting. He has called on states to ban electronic voting machines. . Counting by hand is proven However, it is much less accurate and less efficient.
The resolution lists several examples of machine vulnerabilities that lawmakers are concerned about, including those resulting from recent vulnerabilities. U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced. Electronic voting machines, like any other electronic system, have vulnerabilities. Many checks and balances have been introduced This is to ensure that votes are counted accurately.
“Election officials use a variety of technical, physical, and procedural controls to safeguard the integrity of these systems and the electoral processes they support,” CISA said. Websites that deal with election misinformation. “It is important to note that there is no indication that a cyber vulnerability contributed to the deletion, loss or alteration of votes in the voting system.”
The Senate resolution also provides the following examples: Tennessee local elections After a machine coding error I had to start over.
Arizona law requires the use of electronic devices to count paper ballots.
Counties can only use equipment that has been certified by the state and federal governments, and the equipment must pass testing before every election to ensure it counts ballots accurately.
Republicans pushed Cochise County in November with a desire to count votes by hand rather than by machine. illegally try to count by hand All ballots as part of a post-election audit. This audit, by law, counts only a limited number of votes from a small number of ballots.
the judge blocked the plansaid it was illegal.
on monday, Democratic Attorney General Chris Mays Releases Opinion Agree with the court’s decision. He directed counties to “destroy” former Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovic’s informal opinion on the issue. This opinion was used by Cochise County officials in November to support their case.
Borelli argues that already widespread as truth By legislators.
Despite Mr. Fontes saying counties will proceed as normal, some elected officials in the state, as Cochise County officials did to Mr. Brnović’s informal opinion last year, Leaders and election officials could use Mr. Borrelli’s allegations to argue that their counties have the right to count votes by hand. .
Some Republican officials may also take this opportunity to rebuke the allegation and denounce the false narrative. In Mojave County, Republican County Superintendent Buster Johnson criticized Borelli on Monday, He told the Arizona Mirror newspaper that the resolution “has no legal weight.” “It will unnecessarily confuse many people.”
Or maybe the letter just becomes one of those false claims that are consistently recirculated on social media at their convenience.
