A massive GOP bill in Arizona that would have overhauled elections was essentially destroyed by the Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers.
The speaker assigns all new bills to a committee for consideration before they can have full House votes, a choice that often has a great effect on a measure’s chance of success. But on Tuesday, Bowers took the unprecedented step of ordering all 12 House committees to consider the elections bill, virtually ensuring it will never reach the floor.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction, complained that Speaker Bowers was “abusing his power” by dooming a bill that 14 out of 47 Arizona House members signed onto as co-sponsors.
“He does things like he’s God,’’ Fillmore said of the speaker.
- Under the bill, legislators would have met to review the tabulating process and decide whether to accept or reject election results. If rejected, any elector could have filed a Superior Court order to request a new election.
- The bill also would have mandated that voting only occur on Election Day and be in-person, eliminating early voting and widely-used vote-by-mail, which does not require an excuse.
- The proposal also required voting by only paper ballots, banning electronic machines for all voters except for those with disabilities. Votes would also have been counted by hand and required returns to be completed within 24 hours of the polls closing.
“As a conservative Republican, I don’t like the results of the presidential election,” this Mesa Republican said in December 2020. “I voted for President Trump and worked hard to reelect him. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election.”