Voter Fraud In Arizona?

Things Are Getting Hot In Phoenix And It's Not The Weather

Sorry I didn’t post more yesterday, but I’ve been busy writing a rather long post on yesterdays events, events which quite frankly hit me hard. But in looking for some information I came across this, which I think is huge.

A little background for those who may not be familiar with what’s going on in Arizona over the 2020 elections.

The senate hired outside experts to do a forensic audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election. This audit has been adamantly opposed by the Maricopa County Board Of Supervisors (Board). The importance of this audit is that Biden carried Arizona by 10,457 votes and Maricopa County is by far the largest county in Arizona and the fourth largest in the nation. If the Maricopa County vote tallies are off, either by fraud, mistake, or incompetence, it can have far reaching consequences.

The Senate planned on having the report completed by now. However, the Board refused to turn over routers subpoenaed by the Senate, even though the court held the subpoena is valid. It seems the Board has been relying on the belief that since the Senate is not in session they cannot vote to hold the Board in contempt. Therefore, there is nothing that the Senate can do to force them to turn over the routers. Alas, either they or their attorneys overlooked a couple of things.

First, Arizona has a law (A.R.S. § 41-194.01) which authorizes any legislature to request that the State Attorney General to investigate any city or county they believe to be in violation of state law. State Senator Borrelli did just that - requested the Arizona AG investigate Maricopa County for violating state law by not complying with the subpoena.

On August 6, the AG sent the Board a letter stating that he has been requested to, and has opened an investigation to determine if the Board violated state law by refusing to comply with the subpoena.

On August 18 the Board replied via their attorneys that they had not violated any law. Their argument is since the senate is in recesses they cannot vote to hold the Board in contempt, and therefore, they did not break the law because they are not in contempt. They never argued that the subpoena was flawed or not enforceable, nor did they argue that they did not violate the subpoena. Just that since they were not held in contempt they could not be sanctioned. That would be true if it was a subpoena issued to an individual, but it was not. It was issued to an Arizona county.

To top it off, the Board’s attorneys ended their letter with a snide paragraph, which I have used in the past on occasion, but only when I confirmed with all that is holy that I was correct:

“If you wish to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to give me a call. There should be a mechanism to resolve this issue without expensive litigation and the use of court resources.”

I have litigated against one of the attorneys who signed this letter and he is a good litigator. But I think he made a mistake, or whoever did the research did.

On August 26th, the Arizona AG made it clear he found a “mechanism” to resolve the issue. The AG responded by informing the Board that merely because the senate was not in session and could not vote to hold the Board in contempt did not change the fact that they are in violation of state law by not complying with the subpoena. It just means the senate cannot sanction them.

Now everyone knows that violating a law that has no consequences is not very frightening. The AG cannot send the members of the Board to jail or even bring criminal charges against them individually. It also appears he cannot force them to turn over the routers. So what’s the big deal? Well, what the attorneys for the Board missed is an Arizona law that allows the AG to withhold state funding from any city or county that he determines violated state law and does not remedy the violation. Since the Board violated the subpoena, which the courts have held to be valid, the county violated state law.

The Arizona AG has informed the Board that they have 30 days to turn over the routers or he will inform the state treasury to withhold all state funds to Maricopa County until they fully comply with the subpoena. Is this a big deal? Yep. This year Maricopa County’s budget is about $2.7 billion. Of that $700 million comes from the state. Losing better than 25% of your budget is a big deal.

Alas, I live in Maricopa County.

I think there are three possible outcomes to the audit: (1) the votes were competently tallied and there was little or no irregularities: (2) there were some illegal votes but not wide spread: (3) there was wide spread fraud that changed the outcome of the election.

In the first case, no action is needed and everyone is reassured that the vote was fair. In the second, we would need to address some issue to reduce the instances of illegal or invalid votes being counted. The third result is problematic, especially if other states that have started or decide to start forensic audits find wide spread voter fraud occurred that swung the election.

If it’s found that Biden did not win Arizona and no other state finds the same, then the damage is limited. The state has certified the election results and Congress has formally accepted them. I don’t know if Arizona can change it’s electoral votes from Biden to Trump. This situation is not addressed in the Constitution and I know of no court case that addresses this issue. In any event, it would not make a difference, Biden would still be the legitimately elect president because he has enough electoral votes without Arizona.

But the audit is still important, because if this is the case, Arizona needs to investigate and bring criminal charges against those committing fraud, including government officials and members of any political party who did so, regardless of how high up the food chain they are. They would also have to reform the elections laws in order to ensure fair and honest elections, which is vitally important to our democracy.

The bigger problem is if other states conduct forensic audits and find Trump won but Biden was awarded those electoral votes due to fraud, and that when those electoral votes are added to Trump’s total and subtracted from Biden’s, makes Trump the winner of the 2020 elections. What then? Again I do not know for sure. The Constitution does not address this and I have never heard of a court presented with a such a question

My thoughts, for what they are worth, is that all of the states certified their elections and on January 6, 2021 Congress accepted them, so Biden and Harris were legally and constitutionally installed as the President and Vice President of the U.S. However, under this scenario Biden and Harris would lose all credibility, not to mention legitimacy and could not govern. I believe they would have to resign, but that is a decision they would have to make.

If they refuse to resign, then they could be impeached, but you would need a majority in the House and two thirds in the Senate. If they won due to fraud, removal by impeachment is possible. In either event, since they were the president and vice president when they resigned or were removed, I believe the Speaker of the House would assume the presidency, not Trump.

The only way Trump could return to the presidency, that I see is to become speaker of the house. Most people think the Speaker has to a member of the House. They do not. So in theory, if the Republicans take back the House in 2022, and if the Trumpers could get enough Republican support they could elect Trump as the Speaker, even though he is not a member of the House. Then if Biden and Harris resigned or were removed Trump would become the president. I think the odds of this happening is about the same as winning the mega millions jackpot on a single ticket.

Of course, Trump could turn to the courts, but I find it hard to believe that any court would want to rule on this issue two or more years after the election. Most likely scenario is they slow walk the decision all the way to the Supreme Court until the 2024 elections.