Congressional Record/Volume 167/Issue 4/House/Counting Electoral Votes/Arizona Objection Debate/O’Halleran Speech
Mr. O’Halleran. Madam Speaker, as a nation, we have endured trying times and overcome many challenges, and now we face an unprecedented effort to ignore the will of the American people and the people of Arizona. Given the facts and the unprecedented events of tonight, this effort must be finished, and America can be united again. That is going to take leadership.
We are all leaders.
We are elected to be leaders. And if we are going to do that, we have to do it from respect to others, the idea that truth is important, that factual content is important, that we are going to tell the American people what is going on in this country and not what we hope they hear from a 30-second sound bite.
I used to be a homicide investigator. My job was to follow the facts, develop a case, make decisions and recommendations based on where those facts led me. Following the process means that decisions cannot be made on rumors and innuendos alone.
I am proud to say that Arizona has used mail-in voting for over two decades. Both Republicans and Democrats have long been proud of how our State has administered elections.
In 2020, over 65 percent of eligible Arizonans voted, a record number. Our Republican Governor, Republican attorney general, Democratic secretary of state, and our State’s election administrators and volunteers worked with integrity to administer a fair election.
We saw turnout increases in both Republican and Democratic areas, and, in fact, more Republicans registered in this election than any other party. I am proud that many of our Tribal, rural, and underserved communities voted in record numbers, all during a pandemic. In 2020, Arizonans made their voices heard.
The fact is, multiple Federal and State judges, agencies, and State elected officials concluded the winner was Joe Biden.
In Arizona, this process was administered and overseen by officials from both parties. Election officials conducted random, hand-counted audits of many precincts that confirmed there were no errors that would change the result of the election.
The fact is that the Republican chairman of Maricopa County, the largest Republican county in the State, the biggest population county, stated: “More than 2 million ballots were cast in Maricopa County, and there is no evidence of fraud or misconduct or malfunction.”
He concluded: “No matter how you voted, this election was administered with integrity, transparency, and in accordance with State laws.”
The fact is, the President, his campaign, and several Republican-led groups filed eight election lawsuits, all of which were dismissed. The Arizona Supreme Court, a body where all justices have been appointed by Republican Governors, unanimously dismissed the case.
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The justices found that the party had “failed to present any evidence of ‘misconduct,’ or ‘illegal votes’ … let alone establish any degree of fraud or a significant error rate that would undermine the certainty of the election results.”
After these judicial rulings, the Governor said: “I trust our election system. There’s integrity in our election system.”
The fact is, Joe Biden is the certified winner of Arizona’s 11 electoral votes. Arizona’s elected and appointed officials from both parties followed the facts and came to this conclusion. I urge my colleagues to do the same.
To my colleagues across the aisle, I know we may disagree on who we want as President, but what we personally want is not what matters here. Rather, the people’s influence, as reflected in the certified electoral college results, is what matters. Facts matter.
Undermining faith in our election process by attempting to mislead the American public only serves to weaken us and make us vulnerable to foreign actors who do us harm. For the good of our country, this must stop. Now is the time to come together to preserve our democracy and to protect our national security.
I know my constituents are looking to Congress to move past its divisions, find common ground, and pass legislation to improve the lives of struggling families. We must stay focused on fighting the pandemic. We must work to ensure all Americans can be vaccinated as soon as possible so we can save American lives, safely reopen schools, get people back to work, and visit loved ones again. I urge my colleagues to follow this.