The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 7, 2023

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Notable court cases brought by Arizona election deniers during and after the 2022 midterms have had decisions in the last few weeks.  It didn’t go well for the election deniers.

KJZZ reports that last month, a federal court ordered the legal team for former gubernatorial candidate and Trump acolyte, Kari Lake, to pay $122,000 in sanctions.  The judge found that Lake’s lawyers made false claims in a frivolous lawsuit attempting to block the use of ballot tabulating  machines in the November 2022 elections.  Most of the case was dismissed in August 2022, and the final claim in December.   

Another of Lake’s cases which claimed irregularities in Maricopa county, was also dismissed as baseless earlier this year.  Sanctions were requested by the county attorney, but waived by the judge.  Lake’s not done, however. July 14th, she appealed the Maricopa County decision to the Arizona Supreme Court.

Then last week, fellow Arizona election denier and former candidate for Secretary of State Mark Finchem, dropped his appeal of his midterm loss, but not the appeal of the $48,000 in sanctions for pursuing a case with no legal merit.   

We have links to the great local reporting on these cases at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.  Find us on Facebook @AmericanDemocracyMinute.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Fox 10 Phoenix – Sanctions sought for Kari Lake following latest 2022 election lawsuit defeat: Here’s what you should know
KJZZ – Judge sanctions legal team for Kari Lake and Mark Finchem
KJZZ – Attorneys for Kari Lake and Mark Finchem fined more than $120,000 by federal judge
SUPERIOR COURT OF ARIZONA MARICOPA COUNTY – KARI LAKE v.  KATIE HOBBS, et al.
Arizona Mirror – Kari Lake asks Supreme Court to overturn her loss, let her skip the appeals process
Arizona Mirror – Richer sues Lake for defamation
12 News Phoeinix – Judge dismisses Mark Finchem’s lawsuit challenging election results
Arizona’s Law Blog – Mark Finchem DROPS His Election Contest Appeal; Still Appealing Sanctions, Though

Arizona Supreme Court – Kari Lake’s July 14th Appeal

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ArizonaPolitics #ElectionDeniers

The post Dismissed: The Recent Arizona Election Denier Court Cases Which Crashed and Burned appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 2, 2023

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Votebeat Arizona – Cochise County gives election skeptic recorder near full control of elections
Votebeat Arizona – How an Arizona official is making Cochise County a “laboratory” for election skepticism
Democracy Docket – Cochise County, Arizona Transfers Election Oversight to Partisan County Recorder
AZ Attorney General – Letter from Solicitor General
Election Fairness Institute – Failed AZ Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem’s nonprofit focused on  alleged irregularities in mail-in voting
Arizona Mirror/VoteBeat – Cochise County’s elections director resigns after protecting midterm ballots from Republican officials

Arizona Public Media – Recall petitions circulating for Cochise County supervisor

Today’s Script:  (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Remember our reports on Cochise County, Arizona’s election chaos caused by election deniers on the county board of supervisors? The rural Arizona county of 126,000 is back in the news, because it wants to transfer election oversight to – you guessed it– another election denier.

Back in November, state officials had to stop the Board of Supervisors from requiring 47,284 ballots be counted by hand. Then the supervisors refused to CERTIFY the election until compelled by the Arizona Secretary of State and a county court. This January, the county’s veteran elections director resigned, citing a threatening work environment, and harassment from citizens.

VoteBeat Arizona reports that county supervisors are now proposing to transfer the election director’s responsibilities to County Recorder David Stevens, who volunteered to supervise the November hand count, but had never conducted an election. According to VoteBeat’s reporting, Stevens is a director of the Elections Fairness Institute, a nonprofit run by Mark Finchem, a January 6th participant and failed candidate for Arizona Secretary of State who claimed the 2020 election was rigged.

Monday, the Arizona state solicitor general issued a letter to the Cochise County attorney saying that giving all election responsibilities to ANY county recorder would raise, quote, “serious questions about the legality of the board’s intended action.”

We have links to articles, our past reports, and the solicitor general’s letter at
AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.

The post <strong>More Chaos in Cochise County, Arizona as Supervisors Propose Election Denier for Election Oversight</strong> appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report and Podcast for Nov. 10, 2022

Listen!

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources: 

NBC News – Election Results by State
Politico – Election deniers go down in key secretary of state races

CNN – Kari Lake raises unfounded doubts about election results in Arizona governor race that’s too early to call
Reuters – Election denier loses race in Michigan; Arizona and Nevada not yet called

LA Times – Column: Is Arizona paving ‘the road to authoritarianism’ with its slate of GOP election deniers?

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

We, like many other Democracy observers, are concerned with the number of election-denying candidates who ran in the midterms.   Many Big Lie candidates lost by big margins. But in some races, the support for candidates who oppose Democracy is breathtaking.  

In Michigan, we’ve reported on Matthew DePerno, who ran for attorney general while being investigated for his involvement in seizing and breaking into optical ballot readers in Michigan counties after the 2020 election.   His opponent and incumbent attorney general asked for a special prosecutor and there is an ongoing investigation.   He lost on November 8th, but 44% of Michigan voters cast their votes for him.  

In Arizona, Mark Finchem, an election denier who attended the January 6th insurrection, is still contending to be Arizona’s Secretary of State.   With 75% of the vote in, Finchem has garnered 47% of the vote to his opponent’s 52.4%.   Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has said she would not have certified the 2020 election, trails her Democratic opponent, but with 49.7% of the vote as of November 10th.

In a race too close to call in Nevada, U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt, who has questioned the outcome of the 2020 election, is leading in the race with 49.4% of the vote, with 84% of the ballots counted.   Nevada Secretary of State candidate Jim Marchant, who opposed certifying the 2020 election, leads with 48% of the vote.  

We have links to articles at  AmericanDemocracyMinute.org 

For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.

The post Election Denier Candidates Mostly Lost, But Still Had Wide Support appeared first on American Democracy Minute.