The Arizona GOP have demanded that Governor Doug Ducey order an early start to the legislative session scheduled for January 11 in order to properly address election integrity. Electoral Votes will be read before a joint session of Congress on January 6.
In an update video posted to Twitter, Dr Kelli Ward, the Chair of the Arizona GOP, urged Arizona residents to call Governor Doug Ducey and “demand that he call the legislature back into session early.” The new session of the Arizona Legislature is due to start on January 11th, five days before the Electoral College votes are due to be read in Congress.
The Arizona GOP is making the call to Ducey so that the state legislature is able to address the multiple allegations of voter fraud and election integrity issues that have plagued the state since election day. The Arizona Senate’s Judiciary Committee had made some headway by issuing subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, but the Board voted to reject the subpoenas earlier this month.
Ward described the actions of the Board as “extremely frustrating,” and said that their tactic was simply to “delay, delay, delay,” hoping that the election would be over before the subpoenas would ever take effect. “Call the legislature back in early so that they can address this in the manner that the Constitution demands, and let our legislators get to the bottom of what happened in our elections in Arizona,” Ward said.
In today’s update, Chairwoman @kelliwardaz asks Arizonans to take action by calling the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and urge them to comply with legislative subpoenas & contact Governor Ducey and press him to call the State Legislature back into session two weeks early. pic.twitter.com/udbp1x6Wp7
— Arizona Republican Party (@AZGOP) December 28, 2020
The call to start the scheduled session early from Ward and the Arizona GOP differs slightly from the previous calls from Arizona legislators and others for a special session. The former can only be called by Governor Ducey, whereas the Legislature has the power to vote itself into a special session.
Usually, there would be a requirement of a 2/3rds majority of legislators to call a special session. However, in a tweet, State Senator-elect Kelly Townsend said that due to the nature of the subpoenas, in that they are related to a presidential election, only a simple majority of the Legislature should be required to convene a special session of the Arizona House and Senate.
If the Maricopa Board of Supervisors refuses a Legislative subpoena, the Legislature needs to be in session to force compliance. Because this is related to the Presidential election, we should only need a simple majority to convene. #A2S1Pb#StopTheSteaI #StopTheSteaI2020
— Senator-Elect Kelly Townsend (@KellyTownsend11) December 18, 2020