Finchem sanctioned over 'baseless' Arizona election suit
An Arizona judge has sanctioned former Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem and his attorney over a lawsuit challenging his loss in last year's election, saying the suit "was groundless and not brought in good faith." Finchem's suit raised unsupported claims that his loss was marred by misconduct and demanded the results be set aside and the election redone. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian tossed out Finchem’s lawsuit in December.
news.yahoo.comDemocrat wins Arizona elections post over GOP conspiracist
Democrat Adrian Fontes won the top elections post in Arizona on Friday, defeating a Republican rival who attended the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and who said he would not have certified Joe Biden’s win in the state. Fontes, who formerly oversaw parts of the election system in Arizona’s most populous county, had said Republican Mark Finchem represented a danger to democracy if he had won. Finchem had emerged as one of the most prominent Republicans running for secretary of state positions around the country who falsely claimed that Biden was not elected legitimately.
news.yahoo.comGOP secretary of state hopefuls see corrupt political system
Four Republicans seeking to overhaul how elections are run by becoming their state’s chief election official said Saturday they were fighting against a corrupt system — even pointing a finger at mysterious forces within their own party. The candidates -- Arizona’s Mark Finchem, Michigan’s Kristina Karamo, Nevada’s Jim Marchant and New Mexico’s Audrey Trujillo -- appeared at a conference inside a South Florida hotel ballroom that featured numerous speakers falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. “Our biggest enemy is our own party,” said Marchant, a businessman and former state lawmaker who was among Trump’s most ardent supporters challenging President Joe Biden's 2020 win in Nevada.
news.yahoo.comArizona judge slaps down Finchem, Gosar over defamation suit
An Arizona judge has ordered three Republicans, including secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem and U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, to pay $75,000 in attorney fees for filing a defamation suit against a former Democratic lawmaker “primarily for purposes of harassment.” The Republicans filed the lawsuit last year against former Democratic state Rep. Charlene Fernandez after she called for an investigation of their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
news.yahoo.comWith Extremism on the Rise in Republican Party, Kansas Voters Turn Out to Preserve Abortion Rights
We need to pay attention to the threats—and also to signs that we can work together to preserve our freedoms. This summer’s primary elections are making it clear that our rights and freedoms are threatened by the rising power of extremists within the Republican Party. Responsible Republicans defended the election and its outcome, but on August 2, they were outvoted by Trump’s troops. He wants to get rid of early voting and restrict voting by mail—and give legislators the power to override voters. And voters in Kansas gave us another big bright spot-on Aug. 2, when they rejected an anti-choice referendum by more than 20 points.
thewestsidegazette.comArizona high court tosses push to disqualify GOP lawmakers
The Arizona Supreme Court rejected Monday an effort to disqualify three Republican lawmakers from this year's ballot because of their alleged roles in planning or attending the rally that led to the unprecedented attack on Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. The ruling means U.S. Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs and state Rep. Mark Finchem remain on the primary ballot. Gosar and Biggs are seeking reelection and Finchem is running to try to become Secretary of State, Arizona’s chief election officer.
news.yahoo.comFACT FOCUS: AZ canvass report draws nonsensical conclusions
A report released this week in Arizona's largest county falsely claims to have uncovered some 173,000 “lost” votes and 96,000 “ghost votes” in a private door-to-door canvassing effort, supposedly rendering the 2020 election in Maricopa County “uncertifiable.” Report author Liz Harris, an unsuccessful Republican legislative candidate and a real estate agent in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, declined to respond to specific questions but said a more comprehensive version of the report would be released soon. CLAIM: An estimated 173,104 “missing or lost” votes and an estimated 96,389 “ghost” votes cast by people who didn’t appear to live at their voter registration addresses indicate that the 2020 election in Maricopa County included irregularities and is “uncertifiable.”
news.yahoo.comExodus of election officials raises concerns of partisanship
There is no shortage of job openings for local election officials in Michigan. After facing threats and intimidation during the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath, and now the potential of new punishments in certain states, county officials who run elections are quitting or retiring early. The once quiet job of election administration has become a political minefield thanks to the baseless claims of widespread fraud that continue to be pushed by many in the Republican Party.
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