AZ GOP Fake Elector Anthony Kern Wants The People To Decide That Their Votes Don't Matter
AZ GOP Fake Elector Anthony Kern Wants The People To Decide That Their Votes Don't Matter
Why is he not in jail yet?
Arizona state Attorney General Kris Mayes is investigating Republican state Sen. Anthony Kern for his part in the fake elector scam that was intended to illegally and fraudulently award Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes to Donald Trump, who lost.
Kern was one of a rag-tag band of democracy smashers, including Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, state Sen. Jake Hoffman, and Turning Points USA CEO Tyler Bowyer, who signed a document — with their actual names — declaring that they were the state’s true electors and Trump was their man. They are also under federal investigation.
Kern was more than just a fake elector in some ivory tower. He was on the ground with his fellow insurrectionists outside the Capitol on January 6. He was photographed among the rioters who eventually broke into the Capitol, but apparently there’s no evidence that he went inside for the impromptu MAGA tour.
“I will investigate the fake electors’ situation, and I will take very seriously any effort to undermine our democracy,” Mayes said shortly after she was elected. “Those are the cases that I will take most seriously.”
Kern is already smarter than Trump because he hasn’t retained Alina Habba as counsel. Instead, he’s attempting to avoid potential prosecution by simply making his anti-democratic maneuvers perfectly legal. It worked for the US Senate.
This week, Kern introduced Arizona Senate Concurrent Resolution 1014.
“[I]t is the responsibility of the Arizona Secretary of State to certify elections, including elections for President of the United States, but the sole authority to appoint presidential electors is granted to the Legislature,” the four-line bill reads. Therefore, it concludes, “[T]he Legislature, and no other official, shall appoint presidential electors in accordance with the United States Constitution.”
Giving the legislature absolute power to control Arizona’s electoral college votes, regardless of who won the popular vote, would disenfranchise millions of Arizonans.
Look, I have major issues with the Electoral College but it’s still closer to direct democracy than Kern’s great idea — under the Electoral College, the presidential candidate who wins a state’s popular vote receives its electoral votes. Under Kern’s proposal, you might as well not have elections at all … although, we shouldn’t give him any ideas.
Obviously, if this law existed in 2020, it wouldn’t have mattered if Joe Biden defeated Trump by 10,000 votes or a million. The Republican-controlled Legislature would’ve rejected the people’s will and instead installed Trump as the winner.
Kern has cannily avoided the obvious problem that Arizona’s governor is currently Democrat Katie Hobbs, who would never sign the resolution, only point and laugh at it. Republicans already hate it when she enjoys a good chuckle, so Kern isn’t sending her any new material. No, instead, once the House and Senate pass the resolution, it goes to the voters, who you’d think wouldn’t back their own disenfranchisement, but nothing’s certain these days. After all, Kern was elected to the state Senate in 2022 when it was known that he’d tried to overturn the presidential race.
Arizona Democrats aren’t taking anything for granted. Sam Paisley, national press secretary for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, released this statement:
“This is a full sound-the-alarm moment for American democracy. Arizona Republicans are attacking the most essential tenet of our elections: that the people decide their representatives. Since 2020, we’ve seen hundreds of Republican legislators across the country willing to support efforts to challenge and overturn election results, but this latest attempt to remove the will of the people from the presidential selection process is one of the gravest threats to democracy we’ve seen yet.”
You know, if we’re going to maintain a two party system, it would be nice if both of them supported democracy.
[Arizona Mirror / The Daily Beast]
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What on Earth did Trump put in Republicans’ water to control and convince them to risk their careers, livelihoods and freedom like this? Sadly, the answer is possibly as simple as this - Trump refused to accept norms; he refused to accept unhelpful facts and embraced discarding democracy to retain power. It was contagious. Bad people found Trump’s disturbing rhetoric intoxicating. They liked that he indulged his ugliest impulses, and gave them license to do the same. He spewed venom at the people republicans don’t like. He catered to their egos and used their unquestioned fealty to hold onto power. It’s a sociological phenomenon that will keep historians busy for ages. How did this deeply flawed, repugnant demagogue, like so many dangerous dictators and cult leaders before him, convince so many people to behave so terribly, even self-destructively? What does Trumpism prove about our society?
A bit late for hoping both parties "support democracy". The Rs have made it explicitly clear that they don't. (See "Red Cesarism", Dominionism, The 2025 Project)