Bolick’s bill would veto votes for president

Republican legislators, still steamed about Joe Biden winning Arizona, have been furiously scheming various ways to make it more difficult for people to vote.

There’s a bill that would allow only the most faithful party voters to automatically get early ballots and one that would require early voters to get their signatures notarized. There’s even a bill to all but eliminate early ballots, given the convenience they provide and their role in propelling Biden to victory.

It’s all very confusing and time consuming to keep track of the assorted schemes by which our leaders hope to rein in who is voting (and thus who is winning).

Now comes state Rep. Shawnna Bolick, R-Phoenix, who has figured out a way to cut through all the fog — basically by eliminating the need for presidential elections.

House Bill 2720 would allow the Legislature to veto your vote.

I am not kidding.

Bolick is proposing that our leaders be allowed to override the state’s certification of election results and appoint presidential electors of their own choosing.

“The Legislature retains its legislative authority regarding the office of presidential elector and by majority vote at any time before presidential inauguration may revoke the secretary of state’s issuance or certification of a presidential elector’s certificate of election,” the bill says.

That “legislative authority,” of course, being the superpower some Republican legislators think is conferred upon them by the U.S. Constitution, giving them the right to hijack the presidential election.

Bolick is not the only who thinks the Legislature should substitute its judgment for ours.

Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, already proposed overthrowing the 2020 election results and declaring Donald Trump the winner of Arizona with her Senate Concurrent Resolution 2002. But she ran out of time.

Bolick’s bill would ensure that never again would the Legislature be forced to abide by the will of the little people.

Bolick, who is married to state Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, also proposes a variety of other bad ideas in her bill. Chief among them is a provision that judges no longer be allowed to dismiss frivilous election lawsuits.

Instead, judges would have to hold jury trials despite the lack of any actual evidence.

So if some nut wants to sue, claiming that Hugo Chavez jumped out of his grave to rig Venezuelan voting ma

chines to steal Arizona’s election from Republicans?

Yep, a full-blown jury trial.

But Bolick’s biggest insult is her assault on democracy.

Her bill would allow the Legislature to ignore the state’s presidential election results and choose its own winner right up until the moment a presidentelect steps up to the podium and puts his hand on the Bible.

Bolick did not return a phone call for comment but later issued a statement defending her proposal.

“This bill would give the Arizona Legislature back the power it delegated to certify the electors,” she said. “It is a good, democratic check and balance.”

Actually, there is nothing good or democratic about it.

She’s relying on the part of the U.S. Constitution that says, “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct,” its presidential electors.

But Arizona Legislature long ago directed what that manner would be — that Arizona’s voters would choose Arizona’s electors (and thus its choice for president).

Apparently, that whole democracy thing didn’t work as Bolick would have liked in 2020, so now she wants to take it back.

But hey, no worries, right? Just leave it to the likes of Bolick, Townsend, Rep. Mark Finchem and Sen. Wendy Rogers to decide for you who should be president.

Oh, you could still vote. It just wouldn’t count.

This may be — make that, is — the most arrogant power grab I have ever witnessed.

Her bill would allow the Legislature to ignore the state’s presidential election results and choose its own winner right up until the moment a president-elect steps up to the podium and puts his hand on the Bible.