A handful of Arizona Republican lawmakers called on Republican Gov. Doug Ducey to convene a special session in the state Legislature in order to authorize an audit of election administration in the state.
“The Legislature would have to be called back in to session to deal with this issue, by Governor @dougducey,” state Rep. and state Sen.-elect Kelly Townsend said in a tweet on Wednesday. “There is no time to waste.”
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The message came alongside an article about the secretary of state rejecting a request for an independent audit of the election.
Arizona State Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, asked Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs earlier this week to authorize an independent review of the voting machines used in the case.
Hobbs, who has previously accused Trump of being “on the side of the freaking Nazis” and said that much of what happened at his rallies was “deplorable,” denied that request.
Fann retweeted Townsend’s message floating a special legislative session.
Republicans control both chambers of the Arizona Legislature.
A Thursday night posting of ballots in Arizona showed President-elect Joe Biden leading President Trump by 11,434 votes in Arizona. The secretary of state’s office estimates that 10,315 ballots have yet to be counted, giving Trump no chance of pulling ahead of Biden and prompting numerous news outlet decision desks to project that Biden will win the state’s 11 Electoral College votes.
The ballot dump on Thursday rendered a narrowly focused Trump campaign lawsuit attempting to uncover more votes for Trump moot. The Arizona Republican Party filed another lawsuit on Thursday attempting to adjust how Maricopa County, the most populous county in the state, performed a hand-count of ballots to verify that they were tabulated correctly.
Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican representing the state’s 4th Congressional District, has also called on Ducey to call the state Legislature back into session.
1. I am calling on @dougducey to call a special session of the AZ Legislature under Article IV of our state constitution to investigate the accuracy and reliability of the Dominion ballot software and its impact on our general election. @Leo4AzHouse @FannKfann
— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) November 7, 2020
Trump is resting his hopes of tipping the state in his direction on an audit of the votes in Arizona.
“Arizona — it’ll be down to 8,000 votes, and if we can do an audit of the millions of votes, we’ll find 8,000 votes easy. If we can do an audit, we’ll be in good shape there,” Trump told the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
