Know what the two election-denying counties in AZ have in common? Republican former legislators in significant elected offices.

Not that there are any insignificant ones...though Katie Hobbs might argue that some are more significant than others. :)

Two Arizona counties, Cochise and Mohave, have proclaimed that they won't certify their election results until the last minute, if even then.

The two counties are located in diametrically opposite parts of the state, with Cochise being in the southeast corner of the state while Mohave is in the northwest corner. 

From the University of Arizona -

While the counties are in opposite parts of the state, they do share something in common....aside from being dusty and rural Republican strongholds.

In Cochise County, the elected Recorder is David Stevens, a former state representative.  He was in the lege from 2009 thru 2016.  He regularly earned failing grades from organizations like the Sierra Club and laudatory grades from organizations like the Goldwater Institute and the Arizona Small Business Association when there.  He also regularly sponsored or cosponsored a litany of anti-voter and anti-choice bills.

In Mohave County, one member of the board of supervisors there is Ron Gould, a former state senator, one who makes Attila the Hun look like a bleeding heart liberal.

To be sure, the election-denying extremism in Arizona isn't limited to *former* legislators:

Outgoing state senator Kelly Townsend has issued a baseless subpoena to Maricopa County over the 2022 election.

Returning state senator Ken Bennett was the face of the "fraudit."

Newby state representative Alexander Kolodin is an attorney who has not only represented Anthony Kern in a January 6th-related lawsuit, he's repping Cochise County in this matter.

While I expect the two counties to certify their election results (else the votes wouldn't count and a number of races would flip and become Democratic wins), I also expect that there will be a lot of self-righteous pearl clutching and foot stamping before that happens.

Preview of the 2023 session of the Arizona Legislature

 1. Expect lots of vetoes.  Unless election-denier Kari Lake's lawsuit is  successful, Katie Hobbs has won the race for Arizona governor.

In many ways, that makes things easier for GOP leadership in the legislature - they can appease their most extreme members by allowing their bills to advance in the expectation that Hobbs will veto them.

2  Expect *many* bad measures out of the incoming legislature.  AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona already has a post up taking the position that this will be "the most extremist GQP legislature ever."

I was going to disagree with him - after all, this is still the home of the infamous SB1070; also, many of the most extreme members of the lege sought higher office and failed.  Mark Finchem, Michelle Ugenti-Rita, Shawnna Bolick, and Kelly Townsend are gone; all lost in the primary or general this year.

However, some of the most extreme members of the 2022 lege are part of the 2023 lege - Wendy Rogers, Jake Hoffman, John Kavanagh and more all remain.  And the ones who are no longer there were replaced by other extremists. 

And they'll be around to influence the ones who are in the lege.

In short, in 2022 the legislature proposed over 90 anti-voting/anti-democracy bills.  I'm going to take the "over" in 2023; they're already whining about the 2022 election.

Double standards - are they taught to all lawyers or just to Supreme Court justices?

Like Samuel Alito.

In 2014, he (allegedly) leaked a decision involving Hobby Lobby and contraception to a GOP megadonor.

From CNN, dated 11/19 -

New York Times: Former evangelical activist claims he knew of 2014 Supreme Court decision before it was released

A former evangelical activist claimed in a letter to the Chief Justice of the United States that he knew about the outcome of a 2014 Supreme Court decision involving contraception and the Affordable Care Act by the court prior to the formal announcement, according to The New York Times.

Rev. Rob Schenck wrote in the letter this summer to Chief Justice John Roberts, which was originally obtained by the Times, that he was informed by a wealthy political donor, Gayle Wright, about the verdict of the ruling prior to it coming out.

According to the letter dated in June of this year but not sent until the following month, Wright had dinner with Justice Samuel Alito and his wife and spoke of the upcoming ruling at the time.

Yet, no outrage from Alito.

Yet, leaking an anti-choice decision to the public inspires lots of outrage from Alito.

Also from CNN, dated 10/25 -

Alito calls leak of Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe a ‘grave betrayal’ that endangered some justices

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Tuesday called the leak of his draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade last spring a “grave betrayal” and “shock,” saying that it put the lives of some of the high court’s conservative justices at risk.

In his most extended and direct comments about the leak to date, Alito said it made the justices who were thought to be in the majority “targets for assassination” because it gave some people a reason to think they may be able to prevent the release of the final opinion “from happening by killing one of us.” He also noted officials have charged a man with attempting to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

He did not offer an update on the leak investigation, but his comments suggested the court has yet to find out who breached its inner sanctum.

Well, at least we know what to get him for Christmas.

From ULine -

Election denying is public policy in certain AZ counties

Yes, {start sarcasm} shockingly {/end sarcasm} it's a Republican thing.

From The Hill, emphasis added by me -

Two Arizona counties delay certification of 2022 election results

Two rural Arizona counties have voted to delay certifying their ballot canvasses as some in the GOP claim voters were disenfranchised.

Cochise County, a Republican-leaning area in the state’s southeastern corner, delayed its certification on Friday after three conspiracy theorists claimed the county’s vote-counting machines were not properly certified. 

[snip]

In Mohave County, which is located in Arizona’s northwestern corner, the five Republicans who comprise the Board of Supervisors delayed their certification of the county canvass in a split vote on Monday.

If Cochise County is "Republican-leaning", then Mohave County is "overwhelmingly Republican".

From the latest voter registration figures from the Arizona Secretary of State -

From the AZ SOS' page regarding hand count audits, by county -

Apparently, in certain areas of the state, ideology Trumps reality.

Lesson from Cheeto: An electoral loss isn't a loss, it's a chance to litigate

Kari Lake has absorbed that lesson at Cheeto's knee.

From The Hill, dated 11/17 -

Kari Lake declines to concede, says she’s assembling legal team

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R) declined to concede governor race to Democrat Katie Hobbs Thursday, raising concerns about the election process.

The Associated Press and other outlets projected that Hobbs won the race on Monday. But Lake indicated she is assembling a legal team that is “collecting evidence and data” pertaining to the electoral process.

Not to worry; Lake may involve lawyers, but, like Cheeto, she'll never stop whining.

From the NY Times via The Seattle Times -

Kari Lake claims her voters were disenfranchised. Her voters tell a different story

 When he stepped inside a Phoenix polling place on the morning of Election Day on the way to work, Kevin Bembry was told that the tabulation machines were not functioning properly and he might want to vote somewhere else.

“I’ve never had that happen before,” Bembry, 57, a security officer, said in a

 

video later posted online.

[snip]

Lake has vowed to keep fighting the election after her race was called by

 

The Associated Press for her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs. Lake has claimed

 

her defeat was the result of the “disenfranchisement” of her supporters in

 

Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and where technical problems on

 

Election Day introduced delays, confusion and conspiracy theories. On Twitter,

 

Lake’s campaign has claimed that the election was compromised and said that

 

“the appropriate thing to do would be to let Maricopa County cast their votes again.”

But a crucial element has been missing so far in all of these accounts: clear claims

 

that any eligible voters in Maricopa County were actually denied the chance to vote.

The video the campaign circulated of Bembry, for instance, was an edited version

 

of a longer video posted on the site Rumble. In the full video, he states that,

 

despite the inconvenience, he cast his ballot at a nearby polling site.

 

“I was able to vote — no waiting, no misreads of the tabulation machines, nothing,” he says.

From the website of the Arizona Secretary of State -

It's Hobbs for the win!

A week after the election, the race for AZ Governor has been called...for Katie Hobbs!

From AP -

Hobbs wins Arizona governor’s race, flipping state for Dems

Democrat Katie Hobbs was elected Arizona governor on Monday, 

defeating an ally of Donald Trump who falsely claimed the 2020

 election was rigged and refused to say she would accept the results

 of her race this year.

Hobbs, who is Arizona’s secretary of state, rose to prominence

as a staunch defender of the legitimacy of the last election and 

warned that her Republican rival, former television news anchor 

Kari Lake, would be an agent of chaos. Hobbs’ victory adds 

further evidence that Trump 

is weighing down his allies in a crucial battleground state as the 

former president gears up for an announcement of a 2024 presidential run.

She will succeed Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who was prohibited 

by term limit laws from running again. She’s the first Democrat 

to be elected governor in Arizona since Janet Napolitano in 2006.

From the website of the Arizona Secretary of State -

The interesting part of that second pic is that Maricopa County, long considered a "red" county, voted very purple this time.  The people that saw Hobbs in action as both a member of the AZ Legislature and as AZ Secretary of State, accepted her, while the same people who saw Kari Lake up close as a TV personality on a Fox affiliate, rejected her.

As could be expected, Hobbs said "thank you" and got to work, while Lake, well, whined.

Lake campaign claimed a "white powder" was found in a letter; but reality finds nada

Last weekend (before the election), the Lake campaign claimed that a letter delivered to it contained a "suspicious" susbstance.

This weekend (after the election), the police are saying that nothing was found.

From AP via Yahoo! -

Police: No powder found in envelopes in candidate's office

An envelope that had been reported by the campaign of the Republican candidate for Arizona governor as containing a white powder was thrown away before it could be analyzed, and no powder was found in two other letters the campaign turned over to authorities, officials said.

An analysis by the state public health lab of the two subsequent letters sent to Kari Lake's campaign office showed “there was no powder present and no harmful substance in either of the envelopes, but the two letters contained additional derogatory and vulgar statements," Phoenix Police spokesperson Donna Rossi said in an overnight statement.

Lake's campaign security chief Scott Masino said in a statement provided Saturday that the first envelope containing a “white powdery substance along with a hateful letter” was tossed into the trash by a campaign volunteer who did not report it to security until the bin had been emptied.

[snip]

Initial reports about the discovery of suspicious mail by the Lake campaign last weekend mentioned only the first envelope, and nothing was said at the time about it being tossed into the trash and carted away before it could be studied.

As someone who has served as both a juror and a campaign volunteer, I feel qualified to make some observations here -

When the (alleged) victim of an (alleged) crime change their story to reflect known facts creates instant reasonable doubt.

When are campaign volunteers allowed to do *anything* other than fetch coffee?

Well, it's obvious that Masters has learned one thing from Cheeto-it doesn't matter if one wins or loses an election, one should never stop grifting

Did Masters hear Peter Thiel's whip cracking did he respond to a silent tug on his leash as if he had heard the whip?

The Arizona race for a seat in the U.S Senate favors incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly.

In fact, it favors him so much, the race has been called for Kelly.

From Yahoo! -

Mark Kelly defeats Blake Masters in Arizona, leaving Democrats 1 seat away from holding the Senate

Incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly has defeated his Republican challenger, Blake Masters, in Arizona, boosting Democratic hopes of holding onto the Senate.

With 83% of votes counted, the Associated Press called the race Friday evening for Kelly — a Navy combat veteran, retired NASA astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz. He leads Masters, a 36-year-old “anti-progressive” venture capitalist, by an insurmountable 52% to 46% margin.

Yet that loss isn't slowing down Masters.

From an email from Conservative Intel (I'm on some really weird email lists.  :) ) -

The biggest winners in Tuesday's election?

Hint: *Not* the American people.

If the runoff election in GA goes Sen. Warnock's way*, the Senate will likely be 50-50 again, until 2024 this time, so the real "winners" will be Sens. Sinema and Manchin.

They'll still be relevant.

* - And if it goes the way of Republican Walker, Sinema and Manchin will be less relevant.  The Rs will then hold a 51-49 advantage in the chamber, and Mitch McConnell will use that advantage to kill off the filibuster in order to railroad through a raft of bad bills.

Bill Montgomery - the people that know him best rejected retaining on the AZ Supreme Court

Former Maricopa County Attorney who got nominated and appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court to be a reliable vote for Doug Ducey will be retained as a Supe.

That's the statewide result, but in Maricopa County, he didn't do so well.

Statewide -

Maricopa County, from the website of the Maricopa County Recorder -

Learned two things from this:

1. Ouch!  The slap that Montgomery received from voters has gotta sting.  Not only did he come in ~15% less than the other AZ Supes on the ballot, a majority of voters in Maricopa County want him to go away.

2. Maricopa County, long a Republican bastion, is bluer than most people thought.  In addition to rejecting Montgomery, the voters here tended to support Democratic statewide candidates in a greater percentage than they garnered in the rest of the state.

Not a "red wave", though the "fraud" bleats will start soon

Tweets, I mean tweets. :)

Caveat: Since 2020, late votes tend to skew Republican, so the outcome of some of these races could flip.

From the AZ Secretary of State's website -

In the race for U.S. Senate, incumbent Mark Kelly looks to be comfortably ahead of Peter Thiel Blake Masters.  While the margin could shrink, I'll be really surprised if this one flips.

Too close to call:

CD1, where newby Jevin Hodge is leading embattled incumbent David Schweikert.

CD6, where Republican Juan Ciscomani is leading Democrat Kirsten Engel.

The other CDs went as expected, except in CD2, where Republican Eli Crane looks to be upsetting incumbent Democrat Tom O'Halleran.  Only time will tell if Crane will become AZ's version of Madison Cawthorn.

The top of the ballot state-level races are leaning Democratic at this point; though with one exception, all could flip (the one exception being Adrian Fontes leading Mark Finchem for AZ Secretary of State.

Two lower ballot statewide races are trending R.

Yee over Quezada isn't much of a surprise - Quezada had an uphill battle once Yee dropped out the R primary for governor.

Horne over incumbent Hoffman?  Surprising.  Guess that certain voters prefer corruption to competence.

The biggest disappointment, for me, anyway, was Lauren Kuby and Sandra Kennedy coming up short in the race for two seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

I've known Lauren for many years and thought she would have been a spectacular addition to the ACC.

Lake campaign receives *suspicious" envelope early in the morning

From AZFamily -

Suspicious package delivered to Kari Lake’s Phoenix campaign office

A suspicious envelope was delivered to Kari Lake’s campaign office in Phoenix early Sunday morning.

Phoenix Fire Department’s hazardous materials crew responded to a report from the office that a suspicious envelope had arrived, Lake’s campaign confirmed. The crew and other local agencies started working together to investigate around 2 a.m. early Sunday morning. Phoenix police say there are no reports of injuries or illness.

[snip]

Secretary Katie Hobbs released the following statement when asked by Arizona’s Family.

“The reported incident at Kari Lake’s campaign office is incredibly concerning and I am thankful that she and her staff were not harmed. Political violence, threats, or intimidation have no place in our democracy. I strongly condemn this threatening behavior directed at Lake and her staff.”

Secretary Katie Hobbs

And readers thought I couldn't do it - nothing in the title speculated that this may be Lake's "Reichstag fire" moment, or pointed out that the envelope was delivered when the were few potential witnesses or that it came after Lake was heavily criticized for cracking a joke at the actual violence perpetrated upon Paul Pelosi, the husband of the speaker of the U.S. House.

Jeez, I'm so restrained that I amaze myself sometimes. :)

Do election workers get hazardous duty pay?

They should.

From Reuters -

'Kill them': Arizona election workers face midterm threats

Election workers in Arizona’s most fiercely contested county faced more than 100 violent threats and intimidating communications in the run-up to Tuesday’s midterms, most of them based on election conspiracy theories promoted by former President Donald Trump and his allies.

The harassment in Maricopa County included menacing emails and social media posts, threats to circulate personal information online and photographing employees arriving at work, according to nearly 1,600 pages of documents obtained by Reuters through a public records request for security records and correspondence related to threats and harassments against election workers.

Political violence: not an American value, but too many Americans think that it's OK

From Fivethirtyeight -

What Americans Think About Political Violence

Last week, a man broke into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and violently attacked her husband, Paul. While Pelosi’s husband is expected to make a full recovery, and details are still emerging about the attack, it was a brutal realization of the increase in threats of violence against lawmakers and their families in recent years. And most disturbingly, recent polling shows that some Americans say political violence is sometimes justified.

Polls in recent months have gauged Americans’ views on political violence in a few different ways, but they almost always capture some segment of the population that deems political violence acceptable. When asked whether the use of force or violence was justified “to advance an important political objective,” 1 in 5 Americans said it was, at least sometimes, according to a survey from researchers at the University of California, Davis, conducted in May and June. And in a Reuters/Ipsos poll from September, 17 percent of Americans somewhat or strongly agreed that political violence against those they disagreed with was acceptable, with slightly more Democrats agreeing with the statement than Republicans or independents. However, just a small fraction of registered voters said taking up arms or a civil war was necessary to fix our democracy in a recent New York Times/Siena poll.

Violence, as the Pelosi family has seen, as threats of violence, as we in Arizona have seen, is on the rise.

From 12News, written by Brahm Resnik

How long before election deniers kill people?

Bad headline: voters will have a say on abortion wherever an anti-choice Republican is on the ballot

...And/or, as here in AZ, where there are one or more anti-voting measures on the ballot. 

From NBC -

Voters will have a say on abortion in 5 states with high-stakes ballot measures

Millions of voters will soon determine the fate of abortion access in a handful of states, including Michigan, which could become the first to make an abortion ban permanently unenforceable since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

At the polls Tuesday, voters in California, Michigan and Vermont will decide whether to enshrine reproductive freedom rights in their state constitutions, while voters in Kentucky could do the opposite and explicitly conclude there should be no such protections. 

In Montana, if a ballot initiative passes, health care providers in the state could face criminal charges if they do not take “reasonable actions” to save an infant who is born alive, including after an attempted abortion.

"Millions" of voters in 5 states?

More like *every* voter in *every* state