Arizona is back to being the laughingstock of the U.S.

It has been said that state legislatures are the labs of democracy; Jon Stewart famously described the Arizona Legislature as the "meth lab of democracy."

He was correct.

From The Hill -

Arizona bill would allow legislature to overturn election results

An arch conservative member of Arizona’s state House of Representatives has proposed a mammoth overhaul of the state’s voting procedures that would allow legislators to overturn the results of a primary or general election after months of unfounded allegations and partisan audits.

The bill, introduced by state Rep. John Fillmore (R), would substantially change the way Arizonans vote by eliminating most early and absentee voting and requiring people to vote in their home precincts, rather than at vote centers set up around the state.

Jeremy Duda of the AZMirror wrote it up approximately 12 hours earlier -

The newest GOP election proposal would allow lawmakers to reject election results

It would also do away with on-demand early voting and require ballots to be counted by hand — in 24 hours

Lawmakers would have the power to reject election results under a sweeping piece of legislation that would make seismic changes to the way elections are conducted in Arizona. 

Rep. John Fillmore’s House Bill 2596 would eliminate no-excuse early voting, which is used by the overwhelming majority of Arizona voters, and would require that all ballots not only be counted by hand, but that those tallies be completed within 24 hours of the polls closing on Election Day, among other changes.

Perhaps the biggest change, however, is that the legislature would be empowered to accept or reject election results in legislative, congressional and statewide races. Under the proposed law, the legislature would be required to call itself into session after an election to “review the ballot tabulating process.” Once that review is completed, lawmakers would decide whether to accept or reject the results. If the legislature rejects the results, any qualified voter can go to court to ask a judge to order a new election.

 

Fillmore's bill is here; it's a long bill, 35 pages long, and the stuff about the legislature overturning elections is on page 33.

I *did* mention this bill in my post about Fillmore's candidacy for the Legislative Loon Award, but I have to admit that I didn't read the entire thing and missed the language about the legislature.

My mistake, and lesson learned.

Rep. John Fillmore - a late entry into the race for the Legislative Loon Award

Fillmore may be something of a backbencher in the Arizona Legislature, but he also has checked most boxes on the R hate list; the breadth of his hatred is simply breathtaking.

His quest for the coveted Legislative Loon Award may be rewarded, though he has a *lot* of competition for the award.

So far, his proposals attack education -

HB2276, making legislators the determiners of what is legal or Constitutional in schools

HB2277, giving large property owners in a given change area veto power over school district boundary line changes

HB2279, increasing the total number of students that are in a school district before it can be declared "lapsed" (from eight to 150)

HB2286,  adding an additional layer of parental approval needed for a student's participation in a survey

HB2597, requiring students in grades K - 6 to recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the US and further requiring students in grades 4 - 12 to take a minute to "engage in quiet reflection and moral reasoning" (good luck with that.  It has been <ahem> a while since I was a teenager, but as I remember, telling one that they must do something is a sure way to get one to NOT do that something.)

He also attacks democracy and the administration of elections -

HB2287, barring the establishment of combined voting locations in adjacent precincts

HB2288, barring the establishment of emergency voting centers and emergency voting itself (I think; a lot of language is redlined [deleted] here).  

HB2296, stipulating that government-issued forms of ID are the only forms of ID that are valid for voting

HCR2025,  a proposal to change the state constitution for the same

HCR2011, a proposal to change the state constitution so that legislators decide who the candidates for U.S. Senate are

HB2596, banning early voting and mandating that all votes must be counted by hand and totaled within 24 hours (and other things - there are a lot of additions to language and deletions to language here)

He also attacks the LGBTQ+ community -

HB2285, barring schools from discussing sex ed or AIDS without specific parental permission (to be fair, this one could have been included in the schools section, but this one seemed more like an LGBTQ+ attack) (to be fair2 - this caveat could be included with many of these measures, and not just the anti-LGBTQ+ ones)

HB2292, requiring that birth certificates include a gender of male of female of any child's birth so documented

HB2293, barring public schools from requiring any employee of that school from referring to a student by a gender pronoun of a gender other than what is stated on the student's birth certificate

HB2294, requiring that all government-issued documents that indicate a gender for the recipient have such indication be limited to "male" and "female"

He's not limited to those; he multitasks for Faux News watchers -

HB2291, an anti-CRT measure

HB2282, barring the use of photo radar

HB2280, barring social media websites from controlling the content on their websites

HB2281, an anti-vaxxer measure

Yup, Fillmore is like Mikey in the old Life Cereal ads.

He hates EVERYTHING.