Not giving a state legislature the power to freely throw out election results as it pleases is similar to mob murder, according to the Arizona state Republican who sponsored a bill to give the legislature that power.
The controversial bill’s sponsor, Arizona state Rep. John Fillmore (R) made the comparison while complaining to local CNN affiliate KPHO/KTVK on Wednesday that Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) had effectively sunk his bill by assigning it to all 12 House committees for consideration.
Fillmore called Bowers’ move a “12-committee lynching” and doubled down when a reporter pressed him on drawing that kind of parallel.
“Yeah, it was a lynching,” said the lawmaker, who also declared last week that “we need to get back to 1958-style voting.”
In addition to a slew of restrictions on early and mail-in voting, Fillmore’s bill would give the Arizona legislature the authority to “accept or reject election results” after reviewing the vote tabulation process in a special session.
If lawmakers decide to toss out the results, “any qualified elector” could then ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hold a new election.
Additionally, the proposal would allow the legislature to “conduct an audit of election results for any regular primary or general election” – despite the Arizona GOP Senate’s sham election audit ending in utter failure last year.
More than a dozen Arizona Republicans support Fillmore’s bill, according to CNN.
However, as the GOP’s nationwide crusade to make it easier to undermine election results expands, Fillmore might have managed to reach the ceiling: Bowers’ order for all 12 committees to take up the bill is unprecedented and will almost certainly doom the legislation.
