An Arizona Republican has requested an audit of all ballots cast in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, during the 2020 election amid ongoing allegations of voter irregularities by the Trump campaign and others.
“Americans and Arizonans must have full confidence in our election processes and systems in order to maintain the bedrock of our constitutional republic,” Rep. Andy Biggs said in a statement.
“Although Arizona conducts elections with far more transparency and accountability than other states, there have been some issues raised about the integrity of some of our election systems within the state,” he added.
“For this reason, I am calling on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to go above and beyond to assure the public of the integrity of Maricopa County’s elections. Let’s leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of accountability and transparency,” he said.
Biggs’ appeal comes after election officials in the increasingly purple state called Arizona for Biden days ago.
Nevertheless, in a letter to the county’s Board of Elections, Biggs and two other Arizona Republicans, Reps. Paul Gosar and David Schweikert noted that at least “hundreds” of residents signed affidavits after the Nov. 3 election claiming their votes were not counted.
“More than 3.2 million ballots were cast for the presidential election in Arizona, with more than 63 percent of those cast in Maricopa County,” the GOP lawmakers wrote. “Yet hundreds of voters in Maricopa County have signed affidavits alleging their ballots cast in the November 3 election may have been discounted. Every voter has the right to know that his or her ballot was accurately tabulated.”
The trio acknowledged that the final results indicate that Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump by a margin too large to trigger a recount, but he said the county elections board is “permitted to conduct a 100 percent manual audit” of ballots.
“State law requires a manual audit of a minimum number of ballots cast, both those cast early and those cast in-person on election day,” they wrote.
“The law does not, however, impose a ceiling on the number of ballots that may be manually audited. Maricopa County has full authority to require a 100 percent audit of ballots cast, allowing tabulators to review ballot images and compare the results to current totals,” said the congressmen, adding that an audit would put to rest questions about alleged improprieties.
“The narrow margin that currently exists between the two presidential candidates, together with questions regarding anomalies and potential errors, is more than enough reasoning to conduct a manual audit of ballot images,” the Republicans wrote.
“A manual audit of ballot images will provide full transparency of Maricopa County’s election results. This will ameliorate concerns voters have expressed, will tamp down rumors, and will assuage the concerns of non-Arizonans calling our election results into question.”
The 538 electors who select the president via the Electoral College are scheduled to meet in their respective state capitals Dec. 14 this year to cast ballots.
It’s not clear that President Trump, at this point, has a path to reelection, as some have suggested. That’s because if vote tallies remain the same in states his campaign is contesting — showing Biden victories — then those electors will have to cast their ballots for the former vice president.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this summer found state “faithless elector” laws allowing them to fine or remove electors who do not cast ballots for the candidate they pledged to support were constitutional.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that state “faithless elector” laws — which allow states to remove or fine Electoral College delegates who don't vote for the presidential candidate they were pledged to support — are constitutional.
— NPR (@NPR) July 6, 2020
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