Tucson lawmaker's proposal to give Trump Arizona's electoral votes blows up

The proposal by first-term Republican Rep. Rachel Jones did not get a vote in a House committee late Wednesday after it became obvious it would not be approved. Rep. Barbara Parker, R-Mesa, who chairs the House Committee on Municipal Oversight and Elections, adjourned the meeting without taking a vote on Jones’ House Concurrent Resolution 2055.

That is because two GOP lawmakers on the panel questioned both the legality and the political wisdom of scrapping the system used here since statehood of letting voters choose who they want for president, and instead giving that power to the Republican-controlled Legislature.

And with all Democrats opposed, that left the proposal without enough votes.

Strictly speaking, HCR 2055 as written by Jones would not have appointed the electors, at least not yet. Instead, it urged Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs to sign bills on the wish list of Republicans who contend the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen, including scrapping early voting and having all ballots cast by and counted by hand.

Only if Hobbs refused would the Republican lawmakers pull the trigger, under Jones’ proposal, and award the electoral votes to the Republican presidential nominee, presumably Trump.

Jones claimed that 80% of Republicans and 30% of Democrats don’t trust elections.

“A lot of laws were broken with the way that rules were changed in the 11th hour before the election,’’ she told colleagues on the House Committee on Municipal Oversight and Elections.

“So you could say it was illegally administered and there was just maladministration minimally,’’ Jones said of the 2020 election. “And that was also true of the 2022 election.’’

What Jones did not say is that judges have dismissed all challenges by losing candidates to both elections, though Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh, the unsuccessful GOP candidates in 2022 for governor and attorney general, respectively, continue to appeal.

Jones is relying on a reading of the U.S. Constitution which says the Legislature has “full plenary authority over presidential elections.’’

Republican Josh Barnett, who lost his own 2022 bid for Congress, admonished lawmakers to act.

“Where we are today, at this point, can you guarantee the people that you represent that the 2024 presidential election will be legally run and administered according to law?’’ he asked. “If you cannot guarantee that, then we are asking you to appoint the presidential electors right now via a resolution.’’

He said naming the electors to cast their votes for Trump is politically justified. Barnett noted that Republicans hold a one-vote majority in both the House and the Senate.

“The majority of Arizonans have voted for a conservative agenda based off of that,’’ he said. “And if Katie Hobbs does not want the 11 electors to be assigned to the Republican primary winner, then sign the election bill that we want.’’

Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, said he agrees with Jones that state lawmakers do have the authority under the U.S. Constitution to appoint electors.

But Kolodin, who also is an attorney — and has represented GOP interests in election cases — said the U.S. Supreme Court has said that authority exists only to the extent that Arizona follows the procedures in its own constitution for enacting legislation.

He said that means in order to scrap the current procedure where the popular vote determines who gets the electors, in favor of letting lawmakers do that, there would first need to be a measure approved either by the governor or by the people in a popular vote.

“This resolution, it doesn’t follow those procedures,’’ Kolodin said of HCR 2055, which would simply be a vote by the Legislature. It can’t be effective given the Supreme Court precedent, he said.

Even if courts bought the argument that lawmakers can wrest the power to choose electors back from voters, Kolodin said there’s a political consideration.

“Wouldn’t we be guilty of exactly what we accuse the other side of doing, stealing an election?’’ he asked.

“We would literally be saying we’re going to pre-appoint the nominees to our party’s electors without actually running an election,’’ Kolodin said. “Wouldn’t that be just as bad as what we imagine what they might be doing?’’

Barnett argued that lawmakers would be protected. “The last two elections have been illegally run,’’ he said. “You’re protecting the vote. Because the ultimate goal of this is to have the governor sign an election bill that we’ve been pushing for.’’

The claims about legislative authority drew additional questions from Rep. Justin Heap, R-Mesa, who also is an attorney.

“Then why even have an election at all?’’ he asked, saying having to have an actual vote could be avoided by having every state legislature just choose which electors to send to Washington.

“We don’t have to,’’ Barnett responded. He said that would work just fine for Republicans, because the states where the GOP controls the legislature also control 308 electors — far more than the 270 needed to win.

Heap, like Kolodin, was concerned about the political considerations.

He said if lawmakers were to approve Jones’ measure — and it were upheld — the state’s electoral votes would go to Trump.

But Heap noted that’s not the only office on the 2024 ballot. He said Democrats could “get their fondest wish’’ and take control of the Legislature, “which I can guarantee you will happen if we do this.’’

And he asked Barnett if he’s OK, considering the precedent Jones’ measure would set, with the possibility that a Legislature controlled by Democrats would pick the electors for the 2028 presidential race.

Barnett was unfazed.

“Technically, I believe that’s what happened in 2020,’’ he responded, even though Republicans controlled the Arizona House, Senate and Governor’s Office that year.