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AZ Republicans call for hand-counting ballots in all state elections

An election worker in Phoenix holds ballots on Election Day 2022.
Matt York
/
Associated Press
An election worker in Phoenix holds ballots on Election Day 2022.

Arizona Republican state senators have advanced legislation that would require every ballot cast in the state’s elections to be counted by hand.

Proponents who embraced former President Donald Trump’s false narrative of massive voter fraud called the proposal, which was approved with no Democratic support on Monday, a needed reform.

Opponents called the proposal outlandish, noting that the 2020 election saw 3.4 million ballots cast statewide and hundreds of races, meaning hand-counting those ballots would be a monumental undertaking.

Democratic Sen. Martin Quezada said some Republican lawmakers have gone “off the rails."