PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — The Arizona 2020 general election results were certified Monday morning by Governor Doug Ducey and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. 

Hobbs certified results at the official canvass for federal, state, legislative offices, and statewide ballot measures with Chief Justice Robert Brutinel also in attendance and signing. Just ten days prior, Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to confirm that all ballots cast in the county were accounted for, and every valid vote will be in the final election results.



Maricopa County Board of Supervisors certify 2020 general election results

Once all remaining counties in the state certify their results, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Gov. Doug Ducey will make the final certification granting Arizona’s electoral votes to Joe Biden.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Governor Doug Ducey also signed off on the canvass, which will lead to the selection of the state’s electoral college voters. Because of Arizona’s Electoral College laws, all of the state’s 11 electoral votes will go to President-elect Joe Biden.

The Electoral College is sometimes referred to as a “winner take all” system because the winner of the state’s popular vote typically get all of the state’s electoral votes. Electors are usually pledged to vote according to their statewide popular vote, but if they vote against, they’re called a “faithless elector.”



Arizona GOP to challenge signature verifications for mail-in ballots

The party claims validating the mail-in ballots with signatures is “legally insufficient” and that neither political party could monitor the signature verification process in a “meaningful way.”

Some states, including Arizona, have passed laws banning faithless electors. If an electoral voter votes faithlessly, they can either be replaced or even fined. Earlier this year in July, the U.S Supreme Court ruled 9-0 upholding the authority of states to bind presidential electors to their state’s popular vote when casting their ballots.

The Supreme Court made their ruling after several legal challenges from Colorado and Washington resulted in the removal or sanctioning of faithless electors during the 2016 presidential election. In their ruling, the court said the electors “defied the will of their state’s voters by voting for another candidate.” 

Arizona’s law, ARS 16-2-212, states in part the following:

“A presidential elector who knowingly refuses to cast that elector’s electoral college vote as prescribed…is no longer eligible to hold the office of presidential elector and that office is deemed and declared vacant by operation of law.”

 

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