OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Arizona Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers is calling for audits on all counties across the country that used voting machines in the 2020 presidential election.
“Audit all counties that used the machines – even in red states. So important to demand election integrity. Don’t just do it in swing states,” Rogers tweeted.
Audit all counties that used the machines – even in red states. So important to demand election integrity. Don’t just do it in swing states.
— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) July 5, 2021
Arizona was arguably one of the most important states in the 2020 presidential election.
Even seven months later, a battle is on to audit and examine just what went on in November in the battleground state.
The Republican legislature of the state never wants that to happen again and they just made a big move.
The Arizona House passed two bills aimed at securing their elections.
The first requires election officials to hand over records to prosecutors.
The second raises the threshold of auto recounts to 0.5 percentage points.
The Associated Press reported:
Arizona House Republicans advanced a measure requiring election officials to give prosecutors records of mail ballots that get rejected because the signature doesn’t match the one on file.
Mail voting accounts for the overwhelming majority of ballots cast in Arizona. County officials verify they’re valid by matching a signature on the ballot envelope to those on file from voter registration forms, driver’s license records and previous elections.
If the signature seems off, officials work to contact the voter, who has five days after the election to resolve the issue. Ballots not resolved are not counted.
The AP report added:
The measure, SB1241, would require county election officials to give a variety of information from those ballots to the county attorney or attorney general, including the signatures from the ballot envelope and those on file and the voter’s contact information.
Meanwhile, House Republicans also voted to raise the threshold for an automatic recount of an election to 0.5 percentage points.
Under the current standard, recalls are triggered for most statewide races when the margin is fewer than 200 votes.
Both measures still need approval in the Senate.
Many have been arguing for months that the election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, could pave the way for many other states to follow.
Maricopa County has completed the hand counting of 2,089,563 ballots.
Arizona GOP Chairwoman Dr. Kelli Ward recently provided a major update on the audit and what comes next.
Last week, it was revealed that a whopping nine state delegations will tour the Maricopa County audit facility on Friday.
Ward, who threatened that there “could be arrests of people who are refusing to comply,” says the audit could be completed much sooner than expected.
The GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature also voted last week to revoke the Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ legal authority in election-related lawsuits, handing that power to the attorney general.
