AMERICA!! I was invited to sign up for one of those “We’ll send letters to your state rep” things over the 2020 election. This letter below is from ARIZONA where I see nothing but excuses to NOT do anything. No emergency anything. What a FUCKING COP OUT ARIZONA!!! I hope that @kelliwardaz and others see this crap, because that’s what it is.
From: John Kavanagh <JKavanagh@azleg.gov>
Subject: RE: 2020 election needs audit of the voter rolls to be certified
Date: November 16, 2020 at 8:33:31 AM MST
To: Michael Murdock <email address removed>
I share your concerns over election fraud, especially the extreme cases in Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, which may cost President Trump’s reelection. I fully support the lawsuits being brought by the Republican Party and Trump campaign and believe that they are our best chance to prevail due to time constraints because by federal law all election disputes must be resolved by December 8th.
Because so many problems have been raised in Arizona and so many people have written me, I will address all of the problems here, even if you did not raise each of them. (If I miss one, call my office and I can talk to you.)
But first let me tell you the problem the legislature has in dealing with these issues in time to make a difference. It is a real problem. In order to take action, the legislature must pass remedy bills because all remedies, even those mandating a more extensive ballot audit or recount, require a majority vote to pass. While Republicans do hold one-vote majorities in both the Arizona House and Senate, the Arizona constitution states that any bill that we pass does not go into affect for 90 days unless it passes by a super majority vote (2/3rds.)
Consequently, we would need many Democrat legislators to also vote for the bills and because their candidate is winning that will not happen. Our hands are tied and we can only change that 90 day rule by amending the Arizona constitution, which requires referral back to the voters and would take two years because such changes can only be voted upon in November of even numbered years. Any reforms that take effect in 90 days would not do anything. It would be too late.
Consequently, the legislature cannot order recounts and audits nor can we choose electors because the Arizona constitution says that the voters choose electors on election day and not the legislature. In addition, we cannot fail to accept the election canvas because it is not sent to us. The election canvas goes to the county supervisors, governor, and state Attorney General. We do not certify elections either.
I should note that the legislature has passed election security laws, such as a ban on ballot harvesting, requiring voting machine operability checks before and after voting starts and a mandatory automatic hand count recheck of a random sample of all ballots. Note that this latter hand count is a problem in Maricopa County regarding the way the recount is being conducted and I support the Republican Party lawsuit to correct it. I also support the lawsuit concerning poll workers pressing the “accept button” on the voting machine for bad ballots without explaining to the voters that they could fill the ballot out again without errors. The court is the only way to get a cure for this quickly. Remember the federal deadline of December 8th.
It should also be noted that the Arizona Attorney General quickly and aggressively investigated the issue of Sharpie pens spoiling ballots but concluded that such was not the case, so if you used a Sharpie as I did, it is OK. I have also asked the Attorney General’s Elections Integrity Unit, a special fraud unit set up by the legislature, to investigate the latest concern over the software (Dominion) used in voting in Maricopa County.
It is very frustrating for me, as a Trump campaign surrogate and lifetime conservative, to have my hands tied this way, when so much hangs in the balance. Please do not shoot the messenger. Also, rest assured that we will be passing legislation this session to remedy as many of these problems as we can, including runaway out-of-state campaign contributions mostly from New York and California.
Sincerely,
Arizona State Representative John Kavanagh
P.S. If you are concerned that your mail ballot was not received and counted, in Maricopa County you can go to the county recorder website and click a button to check. Go to: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/earlyvotingballot/earlyvotingballotstatus.aspx
If you filled out a provisional ballot in Maricopa County, check its status by going to: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/provisionalballotstatus/
From: Michael Murdock <email address removed>
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2020 10:23 PM
To: John Kavanagh <JKavanagh@azleg.gov>
Subject: 2020 election needs audit of the voter rolls to be certified
Dear Rep. Kavanagh: To ensure the legitimacy of any outcome, the 2020 election needs a complete election audit of the voter rolls to ensure only eligible, registered voters were the ones who voted and then complete statewide recounts. Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and without it, any new administration will lack the legitimacy that holds America together.
The 2020 election cannot be certified by state legislatures unless we know it was honest, and the only way to do that is to verify the outcome. In Pennsylvania and other battleground states, poll watchers were not given the opportunity to challenge absentee, mail-in ballots.
According to President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, speaking at a press conference on Nov. 7, “Even when a court order was obtained to allow the Republican inspectors to get six feet closer, they moved the people counting the ballots six further feet away. It’s really simple. If you have nothing to hide with these mail-in ballots, you allow inspection. I mean, this is common knowledge, common practice in the examination of absentee ballots, which happens all the time. You take out the absentee ballot, you open it up, the Republican looks at it, the Democrat looks at it. If nobody objects, you put it in the pile. If either objects, you put it aside. That’s what’s done for absentee ballots, which have the extra security of having signatures you can match. Here, which is a much more insecure method of voting, no Republican got a chance to look at that ballot. Some of the ballots you will see looked suspicious. From very far away, they look like the same pen, possibly the same handwriting. We can’t say that, because we never got to see it… [B]allots were un-inspected, un-reviewed, not observed by a single Republican. Not a single one. There’s got to be a pattern. As a friend of mine says, I don’t believe in conspiracies, but I also don’t believe in coincidences. ” Monitors were not allowed to inspect ballots and challenge them, rendering the counting illegal under state laws. Now the only way to verify if voters were eligible will be a complete audit of the voter rolls and then recounts of all the legal votes. The ballots in our democratic republic are sacred, and when they are submitted via mail-in absentee, the political parties are entitled to challenge each and every one of them to determine that the voter was properly registered and living in the state. It is standard procedure, and yet, in major cities run by Democrats across the country in critical battleground states, Republican poll watchers were prevented from doing their jobs. Now, state legislatures, governors and secretaries of state must do their jobs to ensure the legitimacy of the outcome with a complete election audit of the voter rolls and then recounts. No outcome should be certified without such an audit.
Sincerely,
Mr. Michael Murdock , address and email removed.