I try not to write really long posts because I know that for most of you, your eyes glaze over if a post is too long. But I hope you will forgive me, just this once, and actually read the whole thing. I want everyone to know what we’re up against.
It’s a Tragic Sign of Our Times That Any Secretary of State Is Now Forced to Use War Preparation Tactics to Ensure Ballot Access
Guess which state? Three guesses, and the first two don’t count.
The Guardian recently published a deep dive into the evil machinations of the Arizona Republican party in its efforts to retake power by any means necessary. It’s not pretty, and their strategy is a roadmap for the authoritarian ascendency. Here’s a link to the full article (it’s quite lengthy):
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/16/arizona-election-denial-consequences
The article’s subheading summarizes it best:
“The state Republican party is undaunted by electoral defeats of those claiming voting is rigged – and election officials are bearing the brunt of their fury.”
The opening paragraphs set the scene:
“On a glorious spring day in Phoenix, in an atrium beneath the majestic cupola of the old state capitol, the secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, is celebrating Arizona’s 112th birthday…..
There is only one discordant note on this otherwise joyous day: who is that person standing silently and alert behind Fontes? Why is Arizona’s chief election administrator, responsible for the smooth operation of November’s presidential election, in need of a bodyguard?
“It’s very sad,” Fontes said. “It’s a sad state of affairs that in a civil society, in one of the most advanced civilizations that anybody could have imagined, we have to worry about physical violence.”
The Guardian outlines the MAGA strategy.
Double-down on election denialism:
All the big names in Arizona Republican politics continue to trade in election denialism, including failed 2022 candidates Kari Lake (Governor), Mark Finchem (Secretary of State) and Abe Hamadeh (Attorney General). Finchem founded an election denial grift called the “Election Fairness Institute” and is braying about monitoring “phantom voters.” Hamadeh has twice sued Attorney General Kris Mayes over his loss.
Further, the Arizona MAGAts are purging the state party of “RINOs” and election realists. Remember former speaker of Arizona house Rusty Bowers- who was censured by the party in 2021 for refusing to overturn the election – was subsequently swatted and harassed. Two of the four Republicans are not running for reelection; one citing “PTSD” from MAGA harassment. It’s the “fewer, but better, Republicans” strategy.
Abuse their narrow majority (two seats in both chambers) to enact draconian voter suppression measures:
According to Public Wise, a voting rights organization, 12 of the 16 Republicans in the state Senate are election deniers or participated in other acts designed to undermine confidence in democracy. Together with the House, almost half of Republicans serving in the Legislature have introduced anti-democratic legislation; 84% of them have voted for it.
Recent bills proposed by far-right lawmakers include:
- Make it easier to challenge election results in court (goodbye being dismissed for lack of evidence)
- Promote hand count of all ballots
- Strip AZ voters from the voter list whenever they fail to vote in any election
- Require all vote counting equipment to be made exclusively out of US manufactured parts.
As the Governor noted in her veto statement, no such machines exist!
More recently, Senate Concurrent Resolution 1014 would allow Arizona politicians to determine how electoral college votes are divvied up, stipulating that “the Legislature, and no other official, shall appoint presidential electors in accordance with the United States Constitution.” This is the attempted codification of the “Independent State Legislature Theory.”
Intimidate election officials and poll watchers and undermine confidence in machine counting.
The MAGA hordes are going out full force on intimidating voters and election workers. Last cycle, armed vigilantes stalked drop boxes to look for “mules” with fraudulent ballots. Election officials received death threats and bomb threats.
“Arizona is suffering one of the severest brain drains of electoral know how in the country. Of its 15 counties, 12 have lost a top election administrator since the last presidential cycle, prised out by a constant barrage of bile.
Most of those quitting are women, a reflection of the predominance of female election officials and the often sexually charged nature of the threats.”
But there’s hope and action and the Democrats are fighting back!
It all seems rather grim at first glance, but there’s plenty of reason for hope and plenty of action to take.
Election denial is a losing strategy in Arizona. According to the Guardian, although opinion polls show that 70% of Republicans nationally believe in the Big Lie, Republicans are only 34% of Arizona’s electorate. Democrats (30%) and unaffiliated independents (35 percent) are far, far less susceptible to lies about the election. And outside the party, it’s a losing strategy.
Mike Nobel, an Arizona-based pollster, described the 2022 cycle as a perfect case study in the effects of election denialism in Arizona: “All the election deniers standing in statewide races lost, while everything else down-ticket went to the Republicans.” Please proceed MAGAts.
The Democrats elected statewide (with Balloon-Juice’s help) have a strategy and are putting it into action.
Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs has vetoed over 143 election-related bills. She’s dismissed them with remarks like “it’s time to move on” and “the 2020 election is settled.” Further, the independent state legislature initiative referenced above (SCR1014) has little chance of passage. It would require a majority of Arizonan to essentially disenfranchise themselves via a ballot initiative. Although that’s no reason for complacency.
Attorney General Kris Mayes is aggressively going after violations of election laws.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is preparing for the election like the Marine veteran that he is:
“The secretary of state is staging tabletop exercises in which officials wargame how to react to worst-case scenarios. What would they do if a fire broke out at the ballot-printing warehouse, or if a cargo train spilled its toxic load on to the facility storing voting equipment?
“Tiger teams” have been assembled to be quickly dispatched across the state to fix software or other voting problems….
Specialists from the Department of Homeland Security have been deployed to advise counties on physical and cyber security. Active-shooter drills have been rehearsed at polling stations.
As the Washington Post reported, kits containing tourniquets to staunch bleeding, hammers for breaking glass windows and door-blocking devices have been distributed to county election offices. “These are not things we would ever want to train anybody on,” Fontes said. “But given the environment … ”
It’s a tragic sign of our times that any Secretary of State – in ordinary times, a wonky bureaucratic position – is now forced to use war preparation tactics to ensure ballot access.
This is why Arizona is in the Balloon Juice crosshairs for this cycle. It’s critical to saving democracy.
ARIZONA
NEVADA