Author: Rachel Alexander

Arizonans Flood Maricopa County Recorder with Requests for ‘Cast Vote Records’ from 2020 Election

Rachel Alexander

Election officials around the country, including the Maricopa County Recorder, saw a flurry of public records requests at the end of August asking for the “cast vote record” (CVR) from the 2020 presidential election. The requests came after My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, who is actively investigating election discrepancies in 2020, urged attendees at his Moment of Truth Summit in August to request them. The CVR reveals the type of ballot used by each voter and how they cast their votes, without exposing their identity.

Walter C. Daugherity, who has a background in computers and engineering, two degrees from Harvard University, and experience in artificial intelligence and quantum computing, submitted a declaration about his analysis of CVRs in a lawsuit filed by Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Trump-endorsed candidate for State Representative Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona Secretary of State. Their complaint aims to stop the use of electronic voting machine readers in the Nov. 8 election. 

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Arizona’s School Choice Expansion Very Likely to Be Halted as Signatures Mount for ESA Blockage

Rachel Alexander

Arizona’s historic legislation expanding school choice to every child in the state appears likely to be placed on hold right now, as a ballot measure aimed at stopping the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) expansion will probably make the 2024 ballot. Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ) said its signature collectors turned in 141,714 signatures for “Stop Voucher Expansion” to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office on Friday. Only 118,823 valid signatures were required by Sept. 24, leaving plenty of room for error with bad signatures.

Jenny Clark, the founder of Arizona-based Love Your School and a new appointee to the Arizona State Board of Education whose children participate in the ESAs, told The Arizona Sun Times, “Today 11,000 Arizona students had the opportunity of an ESA put on hold. Every day that a child struggles in a school that’s not working for them is detrimental. But this is far from over. We will be monitoring the signature verification process, and continuing to walk alongside Arizona families and their children.”

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Group Sounds Alarm on Arizona Voting Machine Readers Lacking Accreditation

Rachel Alexander

For the last year and a half, three Arizona activists have been investigating the lack of accreditation of voting machine readers used in Arizona. Concerned that the machines are susceptible to fraud — not just fully electronic voting machines but also electronic voting machine readers that are used with paper ballots here in Arizona — the trio has made several unsuccessful attempts legally to halt their use in the elections this year, as well as calling upon elected officials in the state, executive, and legislative branches for assistance.

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Accusations Fly Between Finchem, Fontes During Arizona Secretary of State Debate Focused on Voter Fraud

Rachel Alexander

Trump-endorsed State Representative Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley) faced off against Democratic former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes in a debate Thursday evening hosted by Clean Elections on KAET PBS. Most of the lively exchange focused on the candidates’ stark differences regarding voter fraud, with Fontes more dismissive and Finchem stating election integrity is a priority. 

Finchem said in his opening statement that he is running due to what’s happened to the office under the current officeholder, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is running for governor. He said he wants to “restore honor, integrity, and security” to the position. “It’s not up to the secretary of state to make the law, they enforce the law that’s already laid down.” In addition to other controversies, Hobbs has been involved in a high-profile legal dispute with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich for making changes to the state’s Election Procedures Manual that Brnovich asserts are outside of her authority.

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Trump-Endorsed Mark Finchem Leads Adrian Fontes by over Six Points in Arizona Secretary of State Race: Poll

Rachel Alexander

A new poll from The Trafalgar Group shows Trump-endorsed State Representative Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona secretary of state, more than six points ahead of his opponent, Democratic former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes. Conducted between September 14 and 17, the survey of 1,080 likely voters by the Republican-aligned pollster found that 47.5 percent chose Finchem and 41.1 percent chose Fontes.

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New Super PAC-Funded Ads Arrive to Revive Blake Masters’ Campaign Against Senator Mark Kelly

Rachel Alexander

As Blake Masters pulls to within striking distance of incumbent U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), according to new polling by Trafalgar Group, the Frontiers of Freedom Action (FFA) Super PAC has jumped in to the Arizona media market to buy ads focused on opponent Kelly’s voting record.

The Arizona Sun Times asked Frontiers of Freedom President George Landrith, who also heads the FFA, why he thought the race was still winnable after Masters lost significant financial support. Landrith pointed to the gubernatorial race in New Jersey last year, where the Republican candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, was also a little-known newcomer like Masters, and written off by some in the Republican Party. Ciattarelli surprised everyone, losing by only 3.1 points in a very blue state.

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Maricopa County Hired 145 More Democratic Poll Workers than Republicans to Staff August Primary Election

Rachel Alexander
Election Day

The Republican National Committee sent a letter to the Maricopa County Elections Department (MCED) demanding to know why MCED broke the law assigning significantly more Democrats than Republicans to poll worker positions for the August primary election. State law requires that each board handling the election must be “comprised of two members of different political parties,” but the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) discovered through public records requests that 857 Democrats were hired for those positions, while only 712 Republicans were. At 11 voting centers, there wasn’t a single Republican hired. 

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Jim O’Connor, who is leading an effort to stop the use of electronic voting machines in the Nov. 8 midterm election, expressed his concern to The Arizona Sun Times. “This makes no sense, considering there are far more registered Republicans than Democrats in Maricopa County, and Republicans are super eager to serve on these boards due to concerns about voter fraud,” he said. “There were significantly more Republican precinct committeemen compared to Democratic precinct committeemen hired, so it doesn’t pass the smell test that the county couldn’t get enough Republicans overall. Based on Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s constant snide remarks belittling Arizonans concerned about voter fraud, it’s like he’s doing it deliberately to stick it to us and raise tensions, at best. At worst…”

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Kari Lake and Mark Finchem Appeal Judge’s Decision to Dismiss Their Electronic Voting Machines Lawsuit

Rachel Alexander

Although the deadline for printing ballots for Arizona’s midterm election on Nov. 8 has passed, ending the time for litigation regarding items that must appear on the ballot, one lawsuit regarding the election continues to wind its way through the courts. After their lawsuit requesting the halting of electronic voting machines in the election was thrown out by an Obama-appointed trial court judge, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi, the attorneys for Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Trump-endorsed State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona Secretary of State, filed a notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tuchi stated in his order dismissing the case that “speculative allegations that voting machines may be hackable are insufficient to establish an injury in fact,” it was too close to the election to file, and the lawsuit should have been filed in state court, not federal court. 

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Grassroots Groups Pressure Arizona Officials to Follow 110 U.S. Counties and Not Use Voting Machines

Rachel Alexander

Voters concerned about election fraud are increasing the pressure on public officials to take additional steps during elections this year to provide additional security, including counting ballots by hand instead of using electronic voting machines for tabulation. Arizona Corporation Commissioner Jim O’Connor sent all Arizona county election officials and sheriffs a letter on August 30 urging the change, and now grassroots organizations are following up with their own campaign.

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Longtime Arizona Legislator, Husband, and Father: Rick Murphy Dies at Age 50

Rachel Alexander

Rick Murphy, who represented the areas around Glendale and Peoria in the Arizona Legislature from 2005 to 2014, passed away on Thursday, leaving behind his wife, Penny Murphy, their five children, and many foster children. Born with hemophilia, he received a tainted blood transfusion as a child that led to hepatitis and finally liver disease, which ultimately took his life at age 50.

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Democratic Attorneys General Association Cuts Almost $500,000 from Candidate’s Campaign After PR Consultant’s Anti-Police Tweets Surface

Rachel Alexander

The Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) slashed $474,280 from their Arizona ad buys after tweets surfaced from a public relations (PR) consultant for Arizona Democratic AG candidate Kris Mayes. The details of the spending cuts were independently confirmed by The Arizona Sun Times by sources familiar with the organization. 

In the past, Mayes’s PR consultant Stacey Champion made numerous tweets attacking law enforcement and white people. Champion is white.

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Arizona GOP Disputes Katie Hobbs’ Portrayal of Herself as a Moderate in Her New Border Security Ad

Rachel Alexander

Arizona Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is running for governor, is pivoting her campaign ads to “clone herself as a ‘moderate,’” Arizona Republican Party Chair Jerimiah Cota contends. A new ad from Hobbs states that she will “keep our border secure,” but Cota said in a statement that “this is far from the truth.” 

He said, “This statement is absurd implying that the border was secure to begin with. On top of that, Katie cannot expect the people of Arizona to forget her atrocious record when it comes to border security. … She has actively worked against securing Arizona’s border her entire career. We view Hobbs and her team’s attempt to trick an entire state into forgetting her anti-border security history as an insult to the intelligence of Arizonans.” 

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Arizona AG Candidate Abraham Hamadeh Calls for Opponent to Fire PR Consultant over Profanity-Laden Tweets Blasting Whites and Police

Rachel Alexander

Abe Hamadeh, the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate running for Arizona attorney general against Kris Mayes, called on Mayes to fire Stacey Champion who is a PR consultant for the Democratic candidate.

Champion over the past couple of years tweeted profanity-laden insults regarding white people and law enforcement numerous times.

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Progressive Groups’ Aggressive Targeting of New Naturalized Citizens Helped Break Turnout Records in 2022 Primary Election

Rachel Alexander

Arizona continues to have increasingly large numbers of registered voters participating in recent elections, with a record turnout of 34.92 percent of all registered voters casting a ballot in August’s primary election. Part of the reason for the high turnout may be due to the increase in naturalized citizens, whose population climbed by 63,857 new Arizonans between 2016 and 2020 alone, with many of them registered to vote by progressive advocacy groups.

Almost half – 28,864 – were born in Mexico.

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True the Vote Calls Out Arizona AG Criminal Division Over ‘Mishandling’ Its ‘2000 Mules’ Complaint, Unmasking Informants

Rachel Alexander

After over a year of “good faith attempts to work together,” Texas-based election integrity nonprofit True the Vote’s Catherine Engelbrecht and lead investigator Gregg Phillips of the OPSEC Group, an election intelligence company, say they no longer trust the intentions of the Arizona Attorney General Office’s Criminal Division.

The veteran grassroots organizer told The Arizona Sun Times the election integrity group turned over evidence to both the FBI and local law enforcement, including the Criminal Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO), and has met with AGO criminal investigators numerous times since first contacting them in the summer of 2021 – all to no effect.

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County Clerk Prosecuted After Exposing Election Discrepancies in Colorado Tells Arizona Republicans Her Story

Rachel Alexander

Legislative District 10 Republicans and Michele Swinick of the Save My Freedom Movement put on an event Wednesday evening featuring the story of Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters, who says she believes she encountered programming discrepancies with the voting machines in her county in Colorado, and is now being prosecuted for election tampering.

The event included a screening of the documentary about her experience, “Selection Code,” and a Q & A session with both Peters and the documentary producers and directors, Matt and Joy Thayer. The title “Selection Code” refers to programming voting machines in order to choose certain candidates as winners.

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Arizona Corporation Commissioner Urges County Officials to Nix Electronic Voting Machines for November Election

Rachel Alexander

America First leaders and grassroots activists concerned about voter fraud in Arizona are taking steps to put as many security measures as possible for the November 8 election. Jim O’Connor, a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) and a leader in the grassroots community who brought patriots together to sign an “Arizona Election Integrity Declaration” demanding secure elections in May, is now taking his efforts a step further.

O’Connor sent a letter to all Arizona county supervisors, recorders, election directors and sheriffs on Aug. 30 requesting they refrain from using electronic voting machines to tabulate ballots. O’Conner alluded to his responsibilities on the ACC where the commissioners “find bad actors operating in our state causing harm to our state’s investors,” then “perform examinations and investigations, hold hearings, determine guilt,” and “refer criminal activity to our Attorney General’s office for prosecution. He urged, “I cite that judicial role as the basis for my strongest admonition and encouragement for all of our Counties to immediately cease use of all electronic voting machines for this November’s General Election and beyond.”

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GOP Support Swells for Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly

Rachel Alexander

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) has lined up numerous endorsements from prominent Arizona Republicans, announcing nearly 50 Republicans and independents behind him in July and over 40 more this month. As a Democrat in a traditionally red state, he is trying to portray himself as a moderate in the race against Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Blake Masters. 

Arizona political consultant Jason Rose told The Arizona Sun Times the endorsements may be very effective, pointing out how well they worked for a previous well-known Arizona Democratic politician and citing the endorsement of Mesa Mayor John Giles. “Former Governor Janet Napolitano reinvented effective Republican receptivity for Democrats,” he said. “Mark Kelly is now following that model. His ads along these lines are designed not for everyone but the narrow slice of swing voters that have and will determine such elections. Having them anchored by the Republican Mayor of one of the largest Republican cities in America is impressive, and will be effective. After all, where is Blake Masters’ Democrat group for him?”

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Arizona Citizens Defense League’s Founding President and Chief Lobbyist Dave Kopp Has Died

Rachel Alexander
David Kopp

Dave Kopp, the longtime lobbyist and founding president of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), a Second Amendment organization in Arizona, passed away at age 56.

Kopp fought cancer for 12 years but succumbed to the illness on August 24. Several people in the Arizona gun industry told The Arizona Sun Times Kopp was responsible for transforming Arizona into the top-ranked state for Second Amendment-friendly laws.

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Lawmakers Refer Propositions to the Ballot to Address the Initiative Process in Arizona, Raise the Bar for Tax Hikes

Rachel Alexander

The Republican dominated Arizona Legislature referred three propositions to the Arizona ballot this year that aim to improve the initiative process. Proposition 128 would allow the legislature to fix citizen initiatives that have had legal problems, instead of requiring them to go back to the voters for tweaking. Proposition 129 would require initiatives to stick with one single subject, as propositions referred to the ballot by the legislature must do, so partisan interests can’t ram through massive amounts of new laws. Proposition 132 would change the threshold of approval for a tax increase initiative or referendum from a majority to 60 percent of voters. Progressives have turned to initiatives in Arizona increasingly in recent years, due to difficulty getting legislation passed in the Republican dominated legislature.

Prop. 128, named the Legislative Changes to Ballot Initiatives with Invalid Provisions Amendment, was sponsored by State Senator Vince Leach (R-Saddlebrooke) and passed along party lines. The Voter Protection Act currently prohibits the legislature from tinkering with initiatives, even when a court has struck down parts of one. Passed in 1998 as Prop. 105, it allows a narrow exception for changes that further the measure’s purpose and receive a three-fourths vote in each legislative chamber. 

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Arizona Supreme Court Knocks ‘Radical’ Elections Initiative Modeled After Federal HR 1 Off the Ballot

Rachel Alexander

A voting initiative backed by progressive activists won’t be on the ballot this fall in Arizona after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that backers failed to provide a valid mailing address to receive certified mail.

The court remanded it to the trial court to determine how many signatures would be invalidated, and after a last-minute dispute between the two courts over how to count the signatures, the Arizona Supreme Court stated on Friday that Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections lacked the required amount of qualifying signatures.

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‘Bad’ Signatures Rejected 14 Times More Often During August Primary Election in Maricopa County than During 2020 General Election

Rachel Alexander

In its final canvass report for the 2022 primary election, Maricopa County says it rejected 14 times more signatures than it did in the 2020 general election. This comes on the heels of Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s finding that the county’s standards for signature verification were “insufficient to guard against abuse.”

“Canvass Queen” Liz Harris, so named after conducting an 11-month long independent grassroots audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, told The Arizona Sun Times, “The entire voting system needs an entire overhaul. Period.”

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State Rep. Parker Blasts Ousted Arizona Speaker Bowers for Calling GOP ‘Fascist’

Rachel Alexander

Republicans furious with Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R-Mesa), mainly over denying election fraud and blocking election integrity bills, voted him out of office earlier this month, choosing a Trump-endorsed candidate instead. Bowers lost by almost 30 points to former legislator David Farnsworth, who he was running against for Senate (Bowers was term limited in the House). Bowers spoke out about his massive loss during an interview with The Guardian. 

He compared being voted out of office to “fascism.” He said, “The thought that if you don’t do what we like, then we will just get rid of you and march on and do it ourselves — that to me is fascism.” Bowers was referring to voters being upset about a multifaceted election integrity bill he killed using a technical maneuver. Among other things, HB 2596 would have given the legislature the power to reject election results, allowing an elector to call for a new election. 

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Kari Lake Accuses Mainstream Media of Biased Coverage, Ignoring Her Homelessness Plan

Rachel Alexander

Kari Lake, the Trump-endorsed former news anchor running for governor in Arizona, expressed frustration about the mainstream media’s failure to cover her comprehensive plan to combat homelessness.

A news search reveals that other than one story in February from KTAR, the mainstream media has ignored her plan. KTAR, a radio station which politically leans right, is not considered a mainstream news outlet.

Lake issued her plan earlier this year.
“You choose to cover bogus stories to try and stir the pot,” Lake told reporters during a press conference about her homelessness policy on Aug. 12, directly addressing Brahm Resnik, a partisan local reporter for Channel 12. “And the people of Arizona are on to it, Brahm, that’s why they’re not watching you. That’s why you have just 2,000 viewers for your 10 o’clock newscast. “We have had this policy out for a number of months now, almost a year as a matter of fact. And none of you, not a single one of you, have tried to cover this story. You get caught up in a bunch of b.s. stories that the public doesn’t care about.” 

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Dispute Arises Within Maricopa County GOP Over Member-at-Large Revealing Who Voted Against Censuring Recorder Stephen Richer

Rachel Alexander

After the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) censured Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, over election integrity failures including denying there was election fraud in 2020, the author of the censure has found himself in hot water. Member-at-large Brian Ference responded to an inquiry in a Telegram channel for Maricopa County precinct committeemen (PCs) asking who voted against the censure. He provided a list of names in the channel — but also included their email addresses and phone numbers, prompting a stern email from the MCRC’s attorney.

Ference issued an apology for including the contact information, but told The Arizona Sun Times he didn’t regret sharing the names, because it exposed “Entrenched establishment Republicans who have proved again and again they offer little to no opposition to Democrats, but instead fight like hellcats against America First MAGA Republicans.”

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Judges Reject Arguments Challenging Two Progressive Initiatives on Arizona’s Fall Ballot

Rachel Alexander

Two initiatives sponsored by progressives are still on the ballot for now, after judges rejected challenges from conservative groups challenging them. The “Voters Right to Know Act” (VRKA), which adds new disclosure requirements regarding campaign spending, was challenged over submitting incorrect campaign addresses. The “Protection from Predatory Debt Collection Act” (PPDCA), which is backed by a California-based employee union and makes broad changes to debt collecting laws, was challenged for an “inaccurate and misleading” ballot description. Despite the adverse rulings, attorneys say they plan to appeal. 

President Scot Mussi, president of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club which filed the lawsuit against VRKA, said there is another reason the ballot initiative may ultimately fail. “The practical implications of it is that this information will be used to dox, harass and intimidate anyone for supporting various organizations,” he said Monday. He cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year that rejected California’s effort to have nonprofits identify their major donors.

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Two of Arizona’s New Election Integrity Laws Face Lawsuits

Rachel Alexander

Only three election integrity bills made it into law this past legislative year in Arizona, and at least two of them are now subject to lawsuits from progressives and Democrats. Five lawsuits have been filed against HB 2492, which requires proof of citizenship in order to register to vote — with the exception of voting in congressional elections, which is pre-empted by federal law. Two lawsuits have been filed against SB 1260, which makes it a felony to knowingly help someone to register to vote when the person is already registered in another state.

State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who sponsored HB 2492, told The Arizona Sun Times, “Since Jim Crow, when the courts were used by Democrats to institutionalize racism against black Americans, the Democrat Party and their operatives have a long track record of exploiting the judiciary branch of our government as a back door for enacting their anti-civil rights agenda.”

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Kari Lake and Mark Finchem Denounce Maricopa County Supervisor’s Motion for Sanctions over Election Integrity Lawsuit

Rachel Alexander
Mark Finchem and Kari Lake

Trump-endorsed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lawsuit along with Trump-endorsed State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona Secretary of State, in April to block the use of electronic voting machines to count ballots in the 2022 election. The Maricopa County Supervisors responded last week with a motion requesting sanctions against the pair and their attorneys, which include former Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, asserting that the suit was “frivolous.” 

Finchem tweeted, “The threatened action by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, is nothing more than the attempted weaponization of the judicial process against the political process. If they can’t stand up to scrutiny for elections, that’s their problem — not our problem. Elections must be secure and trustworthy, Maricopa County has demonstrated neither is the case in the last election. “

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Republicans in Arizona’s Largest Legislative District Censure Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, Call for His Removal from Office

Rachel Alexander

Republicans in Arizona’s Legislative District 3, which is the largest legislative district in the state located in northern Maricopa County around north Scottsdale, issued two censures on August 12. The LD3 GOP censured the FBI for raiding former President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, and censured Republican Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates for denying election fraud and opposing Republican candidates for office who believe there was. They called for him to resign and for the Maricopa County Republican Party to encourage Republicans to vote him out of office. 

The censure of Gates began, “Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates has made and continues to make disparaging public comments about Republican Arizona Representatives and Republican candidates during interviews, all while seeming to support Democrat candidates running against them.” 

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Arizona Grassroots Groups Rally at ‘Redfest’ to Push Conservative Legislators for Leadership Positions in 2023

Rachel Alexander

Freedomworks, one of the nation’s leading conservative grassroots organizations, recently launched a satellite office in Arizona and held a joint “Redfest Rally” with other Arizona conservative organizations Friday night to discuss getting conservative legislators into leadership positions in the Arizona Legislature. State Rep. Joseph Chaplik (R-Scottsdale) is vying for Speaker of the House, likely facing off against House Majority Leader Ben Toma (R-Peoria), and State Sen. Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) is going up against longtime State Sen. David Gowan (R-Sierra Vista). 

Chaplik told the crowd that people don’t trust the “fractured caucus” that exists currently under the leadership of House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R-Mesa), who lost his primary election earlier this month due to defeating numerous conservative bills including many election integrity bills. Chaplik called the legislature a “cesspool” of “sham favoritism,” and said Arizonans can expect a “more conservative caucus” in 2023. 

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Arizona AG Brnovich and Coalition of States Fight Against Mask Mandates on Public Transportation

Rachel Alexander

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich joined 22 other states this week in filing an amicus curiae brief at the appellate level opposing the Center for Disease Control’s attempt to continue a mask mandate on public transportation, which includes airplanes and buses. He sued the CDC over the requirement with 20 other attorneys general in March.

“Upholding the law is especially important during times of emergency,” he said in a statement. “Federal overreach is most often attempted under the guise of addressing a crisis.”

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Arizona and Florida U.S. Representatives Introduce Bill to Fight Inflation, Boost Retirements

Rachel Alexander

Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.-06) is concerned that Arizona is undergoing the highest level of inflation within the continental states (urban Alaska is the only part of the country with a higher level). To combat the problem, he co-sponsored H.R. 8579, the Retirement Protection Act, with Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.-19).

In a statement, Schweikert said, “This bill would play a critical role in fighting inflation while helping Americans protect their savings.” He told The Arizona Sun Times, “It improves people’s retirement future so they stay even and don’t become a victim of inflation.” 

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Goldwater Institute Files Lawsuit to Remove ‘Misleading’ Healthcare Debt Initiative from Ballot

Rachel Alexander

Eight ballot initiatives are on the Arizona ballot this fall, with three still waiting for approval after submitting petition signatures. One of those three is the Protection from Predatory Debt Collection Act (PPDCA) which is being challenged by the Goldwater Institute over its description that will appear on the ballot, which the think tank alleges is “inaccurate and misleading.”

Filed on Aug. 8, the lawsuit states, “The Arizona Protection from Predatory Debt Collection Act would institute sweeping changes to debt collection in Arizona that extend far beyond the measure’s purported purpose of limiting the interest rate on medical debt.”

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Maricopa County GOP Censures Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer over Election Fraud Denials and Mishandling: ‘Resign or Be Recalled’

Rachel Alexander

After an Arizona primary election last week full of anomalies, the Executive Guidance Committee of the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) issued a resolution on August 4 censuring Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican. The resolution cited problems that arose during the election and Richer’s previous denials that election fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election.

Member-at-large Brian Ference drafted the resolution, which passed 13-11 with two abstentions. It cited “irregularities” in the primary election, including “reports of printers and scanners not working,” “Pentel felt-tip pen smearing and not drying,” and “late counting and delayed results.”

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Arizona and Texas Continue to Bus Thousands of Willing Illegal Immigrants to Washington D.C., Add NYC as a Destination

Rachel Alexander

Arizona and Texas have bused over 6,100 illegal immigrants they apprehended crossing the border since May to Washington D.C.. The migrants volunteer for the trips, motivated partly by more generous laws towards the indigent in those cities.

NPR and other new outlets interviewed the migrants, confirming that they preferred to be bused out of Texas or Arizona. One reporter said, “Ronald told me that he felt welcomed in Washington in a way he just didn’t in Texas.” The city is finding resources to deal with the migrants. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser secured a FEMA grant for an international nonprofit called SAMU to offer emergency services to migrants. The Catholic Charities umbrella organization is also assisting.

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Republicans Look to November as Concerns Linger over Ballot Tabulation Delays in Arizona

Rachel Alexander

Although Arizona’s primary election was Tuesday, not all of the ballots have been counted yet, leaving the Arizona gubernatorial primary race for Republicans uncalled until Thursday evening. The Associated Press finally declared Trump-endorsed Kari Lake the winner, after Lake’s victory increased to 20,000, 46.78 percent to Karrin Taylor Robson’s 44.03 percent. By 1 p.m. on Thursday, there were still at least 242,414 outstanding ballots statewide. 

Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room: Pandemic Wednesday evening to discuss the slow results. At that time, only 82 percent of the ballots had been counted. Ward blamed incompetence by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer. “France can count millions of ballots within hours of their election,” she pointed out, calling him a “disgrace.” (She retweeted the information about France) Ward said his office announced they would have more results to announce at 7 p.m. from the 125,000 outstanding ballots left from people who had dropped their ballots off at polling locations, but never did.

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Investigation Finds, Names the Maricopa County Elections Employee on Video Removing 2020 Election Files from Servers

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Senate-ordered independent Maricopa County ballot audit of the 2020 presidential election revealed questionable findings, including a Maricopa County Elections Department (MCED) employee captured on video deleting, or what officials stated later was merely archiving, hundreds of thousands of files from an election server the day before the server was to be turned over to the audit. Last weekend, investigative journalist Lara Logan and cyber expert Matt Van Bibber stated at an election security forum hosted by We the People AZ Alliance that the employee has been identified, along with a couple of his co-workers who allowed him access into the election server room.

Van Bibber, who discovered the information through viewing videos and matching what he saw against server room logs, said the employee was Brian Ramirez, a database administrator at MCED. Van Bibber said Ramirez did not have the required credentials to enter the server room where the computer was, so two other employees gave him access with their card keys. One was Kristi Passarelli, assistant elections director, and the other was an employee named Charles Cooley, who appears to be an Administrative/Operations Specialist.

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Freedom From Religion Foundation Files Complaint With IRS Against Mesa Church After GOP Candidate Addresses Event

Rachel Alexander

The Wisconsin-based, “freethought” watchdog Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a complaint with the IRS against the Redeemer Apostolic Church in Mesa after pastor and CD 4 candidate Jerone Davis appeared at a prayer revival event hosted by America’s Revival, which is separate from the church. Davison was endorsed there by the founder of America’s Revival, Pastor Joshua Feuerstein. The FFRF wants the church’s tax-exempt status revoked, asserting that it crossed the line into the type of political activity that nonprofit 501(c)(3)s are prohibited from engaging in.

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Kari Lake Files Complaint Against Gov. Doug Ducey for Flying Her Opponent from a Joint Campaign Event in a Taxpayer-Funded Jet

Rachel Alexander

Trump-endorsed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has filed a complaint with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich against Gov. Doug Ducey for using a state government helicopter to fly back from a campaign event with her opponent Karrin Taylor Robson after he hosted a campaign event with Robson. 

The complaint letter from Lake’s attorney Tim La Sota stated, “The state airplane is not a shuttle service that can be rented out by wealthy politicians when the private jet they normally use is unavailable. And the Governor has no power under the law to permit such effective rental agreements to those he favors politically. Surely after over a decade in public office he must know this.”

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Arizona Free Enterprise Club Files Lawsuit Against ‘Radical’ Elections Ballot Initiative

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) filed a lawsuit last week against a sweeping elections initiative modeled after the federal HR 1 that is seeking to get on the ballot this fall. The complaint alleges the PAC behind it committed seven statutory violations, including collecting over half the signatures illegally, and provides evidence that many of the initiative’s paid circulators provided false information or failed to register with the Secretary of State.

“After analyzing over 45,000 petition sheets and 420,000 signatures, it’s clear that well over half of the signatures on this election initiative were collected in violation of state law,” said AFEC President Scot Mussi. “That should be more than enough to invalidate this initiative.”

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In Response to ‘2000 Mules,’ Arizona Republican Party Offers $50,000 Reward for Evidence of Vote Buying in 2022 Election

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Republican Party announced last week that it would reward anyone who provides evidence of vote buying in the 2022 election a $50,000 reward, with up to two rewards. The evidence must lead to an arrest and conviction. 

The press release explains how vote buying occurs, usually with mail-in ballots since they are not secret from everyone. “Unfortunately,” the AZGOP said, “the movement towards mass mail-in voting completely undoes secret ballot reform. Mail-in ballots are not secret — once a person has a ballot in their home, they can easily show it to anyone, including bad actors.” 

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Arizona State House Republicans Launch New Caucus

Rachel Alexander

Following in the footsteps of the federal Congressional House Freedom Caucus, legislators in the Arizona House have started an Arizona Freedom Caucus. A group of conservative lawmakers announced during a press conference last week that nearly a third of the Arizona House’s 31 Republicans have already joined it. 

The founding chairman is State Rep. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who said he was humbled to “to lead them in battle against the left and the establishment GOP that refuses to answer to the will of the people and instead chooses to answer to special interests and lobbyists’ groups that reside down here — they fill the halls.” 

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Arizona Republican Party Censures House Speaker Rusty Bowers: ‘Unfit to Serve’

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Republican Party’s Executive Committee formally censured Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers (R-Mesa) this week, calling on Republicans to vote him out of office during the primary election this year, and urging his Legislative District 10 and the Maricopa County Republican Party to issue their own censures.

The two-page censure contains a lengthy list of Bowers’ actions on bills in the Arizona Legislature, and declares he is “unfit to serve the platform of the Republican Party and will of the voter of the Republican Party of Arizona.” AZGOP Chair Kelli Ward tweeted, “he is no longer a Republican in good standing & we call on Republicans to replace him at the ballot box in the August primary.”

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Kari Lake Accuses Karrin Taylor Robson of Tricking ‘a Record’ 1,200 Plus Mostly Elderly People into Donations, Including Autorenewals

Rachel Alexander

Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is leading the GOP primary race, accused opponent Karrin Taylor Robson of tricking elderly Arizonans into donating to her campaign by pretending the money would go for “Trump, Truth Social & the Wall.” She also accused the mostly self-funded candidate, who is the other main contestant left in the primary, of fooling donors into committing to automatically renewing their donations each month. 

In a video, Lake holds up over 1,000 pages of “potential victims.” She said she is warning retirees or those married to a retiree about “a fundraising ploy that they could have very likely gotten caught up in, especially if they are patriotic and worried about the direction this country is going.” She went on, “Thousands and thousands of Americans, most of them retirees, most of them living on Social Security, got tricked into donating to my opponent in one of those recurring donation schemes.” 

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Concerns Arise over Envelopes Containing Ballots Mailed to Maricopa County Voters That Reveal Political Party in Clear Window

Rachel Alexander

Envelopes containing ballots sent to voters in Maricopa County last week contained a small square with clear plastic on the top left side revealing part of the ballot. The political party of the ballot can clearly be seen in the window, and in some cases, it appears individuals’ voter registration numbers as well. Concerns have been raised that renegade postal workers or election workers might throw Republican ballots out before they reach voters.

State Rep. Jacqueline Parker (R-Mesa) tweeted, “The post office doesn’t need to know this information. The Recorder’s office is being awfully cavalier & open with personal information in a time when people already don’t trust the mail or AZ’s voting systems.” 

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Kari Lake Responds to Gov. Doug Ducey’s Criticism, Notes RINOs ‘Travel in Packs’ Citing Rival’s Pence, Christie Endorsements

Rachel Alexander

Early ballots for Arizona’s primary election were mailed last week, prompting a flurry of last minute endorsements for candidates. Gov. Doug Ducey, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson in the gubernatorial race, and Ducey took it a step further, criticizing Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake during a CNN appearance, prompting a sharp response from Lake. 

Lake, who is leading by a substantial amount in recent polls, has portrayed Robson and those endorsing her as RINOs. She told The Arizona Sun Times, “Doug Ducey, Chris Christie and Mike Pence are all herding around Karrin Taylor Robson. It turns out RINOs travel in packs.”

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Arizona State Legislators Jake Hoffman, Neal Carter, and Warren Petersen Top Republican Liberty Caucus’s 2022 Rankings

Rachel Alexander

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Arizona (RLCAZ) released its 2022 rankings of Arizona legislators based on how they voted to advance or restrict liberty, and eight scored a perfect 100 or above. State Rep. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) and State Rep. Neal Carter (R-Casa Grande) tied with 106 for the top scores in the State House, and State Sen. Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) received the highest score in the State Senate, 102.

Hoffman told The Arizona Sun Times, “It’s an honor to be recognized for my efforts to defend liberty. I am humbled to be one of the highest scoring members of the Arizona legislature; however, while I’m grateful for the recognition, it’s not why I, or any of the other top scorers, fight so hard to defend constitutionally limited government. We do it because we take our oath of office and the Constitution seriously. Unlike so many in the swamp, we view elected service as an awesome responsibility to fight for the people we represent at all times, especially when it’s unpopular amongst the political establishment to do so.”

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Arizona Democratic Party Extends ‘A Warm Thank You to Karrin Taylor Robson for Her Longtime Financial Support to Help Elect Democratic Candidates’

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) issued a statement this recently thanking Karrin Taylor Robson for contributing money to Democrats in recent years while a Republican.

“The Arizona Democratic Party would like to extend a warm ‘thank you’ to Karrin Taylor Robson for her longtime financial support to help elect Democratic candidates up and down the ballot,” said the press release. The ADP said Robson is “a big funder of Arizona Democrats, funneling thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates as recently as 2020.”

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Arizona Judge Rules Father May Present an Argument That He Is Representing the Estate of His Aborted Baby to Sue Abortion Doctor

Rachel Alexander

According to Pro Publica, an Arizona judge this week ruled that U.S. Marine veteran Mario Villegas may represent the estate of his aborted child and sue the abortion doctor, and refer the doctor for wrongful death.

Villegas asserts in his complaint that doctors failed to properly inform his now ex-wife of the long-term medical risks of abortion, nor the “reasonable alternatives to abortion” such as counseling and putting the baby up for adoption. He said they failed to talk to her about the “intense and emotionally satisfying maternal bond and relationship inherent in birthing and raising that child.”

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