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My antennae went up when I saw @Scarpinato's thread on voting. Now I think I get it -- it's Trump's "voter fraud" but with Ducey's "lite" touch. He seems to be sowing doubt about the election over a small dispute about a justifiable voting accommodation. https://tucson.com/news/local/arizona-governor-secretary-of-state-argue-over-election-procedures/article_2e3e19a3-f235-51cc-ad39-8c5e0b5ff546.html
Here's the thread from yesterday: https://twitter.com/Scarpinato/status/1308790688083881984?s=20
Here's some important context from that scary article in The Atlantic. The Legislatures could pretend that there are too many dubious ballots and decide they should choose the electors.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/
Of course the other piece of key context is that Trump insists that we "get rid of the ballots" before he'll accept a peaceful transfer of power if he loses. Ducey is an avid Trump supporter, and this could be considered a way to "get rid' of ballots. https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1308902276187262978?s=20
Seems like this below is the key question. Why would you use a single county recorder's complaint to lash out publicly and file a complaint with the AG rather than figure out an agreeable accommodation for this small population of voters. https://twitter.com/TinPhx/status/1309182593900847104?s=20
If you were really trying to solve the problem, rather than make a public claim of "election integrity" problems, you probably wouldn't ask the attorney general to investigate.
If you were trying to lay a veil of official concern over a political effort to sow doubt about "election integrity," you would definitely go to the AG @GeneralBrnovich who has urgently buddied up to Trump. https://twitter.com/RepAndyBiggsAZ/status/1308847077296922625?s=20
I mean, @GeneralBrnovich is so urgent about supporting Trump he even inserted himself unnecessarily and unbidden into impeachment, urging a "no" vote. https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/elviadiaz/2020/01/23/arizona-attorney-general-mark-brnovich-wants-aquit-trump-impeachment/4550818002/
So yes, I'm very skeptical about the @dougducey / @Scarpinato offensive yesterday. It fits seamlessly into Trump's efforts to sow doubt about the election process in order to try to retain power.
I dug deeper and wrote a column about this dispute. The main change I'd make to this thread is to clarify I didn't understand @azcentral published a story on this before Ducey's staff came out on it. Their public offensive seemed unprompted but wasn't. https://tucson.com/news/local/tim-stellers-opinion-as-trump-seeds-election-doubt-arizona-cant-afford-fight-over-procedures/article_982cd3a0-8912-500f-8201-5e4245bb3f03.html#tracking-source=home-the-latest
