Arizona state GOP lawmakers have introduced a bill that would split Maricopa Country into four smaller counties.
Rep. Jake Hoffman introduced HB 2787, co-sponsored by eight other lawmakers — five state House members, four state Senate members — on Wednesday.
Voting in Maricopa County, the state's largest county, was scrutinized following the 2020 presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump and allies claimed President Joe Biden's victory was due to voter fraud in several key swing states, including Arizona.
Biden became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton to carry Arizona's 11 electoral votes, by a margin of about 10,500 votes. He won Maricopa County by about 45,000 votes.
A Republican-backed audit confirmed that Biden carried Maricopa County and the state's electoral votes in 2020.
Hoffman last year criticized the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors — who, at the time, refused to comply with subpoenas from the Arizona Senate's audit of the 2020 election — for what he said was its "blatant disregard for the Constitution and public mockery of the lawful oversight of elections by the Arizona Legislature."
The bill would divide Maricopa County into three counties that favored Trump by wide margins in 2020 election, and one that contained concentrated Democrat voters in and around Phoenix.
The sponsors called the bill "a legislative proposal with bipartisan support designed to ensure that Arizona governments remain accountable and representative to the community for generations to come," said Andrew Wilder, communications director for the state House Republican Caucus, The Hill reported.
The bill was introduced on the final day in which legislators could introduce new proposals this year — a sign that it was unlikely to advance, according to legislative insiders, The Hill said.
Hoffman's proposal is one of dozens of bills introduced this year that would overhaul Arizona election provisions and practices.
"You look at what happened here in the last election and folks who couldn't let it go continue to not let it go," state Rep. Lorenzo Sierra, a Democrat, told The Hill. "This is big government conservatives trying to force government down our throat."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.