PHOENIX — On Monday, at least nine members of the House and Senate gathered at the Phoenix Hyatt to hear from President Trump's legal team, after election results showed he lost Arizona's vote by more than 10,000 votes.
The team, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, argued Arizona's election results aren't legitimate; all while Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, along with Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Governor Doug Ducey signed off on the state's canvass.
So far, no concrete evidence that supports the claim. At least three of four legal challenges filed by both Arizona Republicans, and the Trump campaign have failed in court.
"You may agree with these legislators, or maybe not, but what they’re doing is not politically crazy from their point of view," said GOP strategist Stan Barnes.
"They are doing what they are supposed to do in their mind, which is giving voice to a constituency that wants to know it’s being heard.”
Republican Oro Valley Representative Mark Fincham led Monday's forum and ended it with a call for a special session hoping legislators will select electors to replace those certified by Arizona's vote.
Arizona's eleven electors by law, are required to vote for the candidate who won the most votes. All eleven votes will go to former Vice President Joe Biden on December 14 unless legislators step in.
“It would be an extremely divisive political thing to do," added Barnes." Republicans have a very thin majority in the state legislature. The very bare minimum 31 out of 60 in the house and 16 out of 30 in the Senate. That means they can’t just do whatever they want to do in this regard on a constitutional manner without the cooperation from Democrats, and Democrats are not going to cooperate.”
The move would take approval from legislative leaders including Senate President Karen Fann and Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers. ABC15 reached out to a spokesperson for each, but as of Tuesday, has not heard back.
The Arizona Republican party is also hoping to trigger the same, with a legal challenge to the statewide canvass. The GOP getting the go ahead from a Maricopa County judge Monday to inspect a number of early ballot envelopes to determine whether signatures were properly verified. The challenge, if successful, aims to invalidate Arizona's results.
"There is no majority at the legislature that wants to overturn the election in Arizona by sending a different set of electors to the college," said Barnes. "There are strong feelings by some legislators that something was amiss, but converting that suspicion into an act of the Arizona legislature with a super majority that essentially overturns the declared outcome signed by the governor is next to impossible.”
