'This should terrify the nation': the Trump ally seeking to run Arizona's elections
Recent DU threads:
• AZ GOP State Rep. Mark Finchem intros resolution to "decertify" '20 elex in 3 AZ counties.
• Trump's pick for Arizona secretary of state suggested Covid didn't exist and called vaccine a crime
• 'Be On High Alert' About GOP Election Deniers Seeking Office
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Source: The Guardian
‘This should terrify the nation’: the Trump ally seeking to run Arizona’s elections
Mark Finchem, a supporter of the ex-president’s ‘big lie’ about the 2020 election, could soon oversee voting in the state
Ed Pilkington
@edpilkington
Mon 21 Feb 2022 09.00 GMT
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Trump by contrast was heaping plaudits on an individual running for an elected post that a year ago most people had never heard of, let alone cared about. He was endorsing Mark Finchem, a Republican lawmaker from Tucson, in his bid to become Arizona’s secretary of state.
Until Trump’s endorsement, Finchem, like the relatively obscure position for which he is now standing, was scarcely known outside politically informed Arizona circles. Today he is a celebrity on the “Save America” circuit, one of a coterie of local politicians who have been thrown into the national spotlight by Trump as he lays the foundations for a possible ground attack on democracy in the 2024 presidential election.
The role of secretary of state is critical to the smooth workings and integrity of elections in many states, Arizona included. The post holder is the chief election officer, with powers to certify election results, vet the legal status of candidates and approve infrastructure such as voting machines.
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About three weeks after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election – and on the same day that Joe Biden’s 10,457-vote victory in Arizona was certified – Finchem hosted Rudy Giuliani at a downtown Phoenix hotel. Giuliani, then Trump’s personal lawyer, announced a new theory for why the result should be overturned: that Biden had relied on fraudulent votes from among the 5 million undocumented immigrants living in the state – a striking number given that Arizona only has a total of 7 million residents.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/21/mark-finchem-trump-arizona-elections-secretary-of-state
Alternate link: https://news.yahoo.com/terrify-nation-trump-ally-seeking-090028321.html
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