Arizona Secretary of State certifies 2020 general election results
PHOENIX - Arizona's election results were certified on Nov. 30 by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, formalizing Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow victory over Donald Trump even as the Republican president’s attorneys continued making baseless claims of fraud in the state’s vote count.
Hobbs certified the results at a news conference alongside Governor Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court Robert Brutinel.
RELATED: Gov. Doug Ducey defends Arizona's voting integrity after Trump's criticism
"Other states explored and experimented with election day, Arizona did not," Ducey said. "If you recall, there was talk about not having Election Day voting, some suggested canceling it. In Arizona, we said no thank you. We are going to have Election Day. This is America and no voter should be disenfranchised. Thanks to the hard work of our election workers, we preserved Election Day."
Joe Biden secured Arizona's 11 electoral votes on his way to becoming president-elect.
Biden is only the second Democrat in 70 years to win Arizona. In the final tally, Biden won by 10,457 votes, 0.3 percent of the nearly 3.4 million ballots cast. 11 Democratic electors will meet Dec. 14 to formally pledge Arizona’s electoral votes to Biden.
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The certification also paves the way for Democrat Mark Kelly to take his seat in the U.S. Senate, formalizing his victory in a special election to finish the last two years of the term of John McCain, who died in 2018. Kelly is scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday in Washington.
Not long after the certification, President Donald Trump took jabs at Ducey on Twitter, agreeing with a tweet saying he's betrayed the people of Arizona. Ducey made a series of tweets defending Arizona's voting process.
Arizona voters also chose to make recreational marijuana legal in the state by passing Prop 207.
As a result, 13 out of 15 county attorneys in Arizona are dropping criminal cases relating to marijuana, or putting marijuana prosecutions on pause.
A Valley attorney explains what's next with recreational marijuana as it becomes legalized.
Roughly six thousand cases with charges under Prop 207 in Maricopa county, and of those 3,500 bench warrants, are soon to be dismissed upon review by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
"Once that's certified, technically it’s the law of the land and it would be in effect, at least a part. But there are certain parts of the prop that will take time, but theoretically, things like a criminal aspect or any type of criminal offense that would be related to marijuana will no longer be in place ...," said Josh Black, a Valley attorney.
Election results expected to be certified Nov. 30, legalizing recreational marijuana
With the certification of election results in Arizona comes the legalization of recreational marijuana.
He explains further, "If you have a previous marijuana conviction, that is something that would have to go through the formal expungement process which should be available starting about mid next year."
Although marijuana will become legal, it is still illegal to drive under the influence, just like with alcohol.
"That’s something that officers won’t have too much difficulty in doing. The idea would be proving the impairment and that might be a little bit more difficult and it would be based on the officer's testimony and his training to say, 'This is what I observed and this is what made me concerned that this person was impaired."
For more information on the legalization of marijuana in Arizona, visit this link.
Unfounded allegation of voter fraud persist
Elections challenges brought by the Trump campaign or his backers in key battleground states have largely been unsuccessful as Trump continues to allege voter fraud while refusing to concede.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In fact, election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities.
RELATED: Biden transition team says President Trump's refusal to concede is causing problems
Last week, a judge in Phoenix rejected the Arizona Republican Party’s bid to postpone the certification of election results in Maricopa County and dismissed the party’s legal challenge that sought a new audit of a sampling of ballots.
Lawyers for the state GOP were scheduled to be in court again Monday to argue for a fresh challenge of the verification process for mail ballots.
Even as state officials certified the results, Trump’s lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, held a meeting at a downtown Phoenix hotel to lay out claims of irregularities in Arizona’s vote count. But they did not provide evidence of widespread fraud.
Nine Republican lawmakers attended the hearing, which was expected to last for several hours. They had requested permission to hold a formal legislative hearing at the Capitol but were denied by the House speaker and Senate president.
As votes were being certified on Nov. 30, a group gathered at the State Capitol parking lot in protest.
"It's not over," Karen Fay of Kingman said.
"When will it be over?" Fay was asked.
"When Trump is sworn in for a second term," Fay replied.
Members of the protest group pledge to continue the fight to have the election results overturned. Members of the group also say they are still donating to the Trump campaign.
"I don't like that they keep asking for money after I just gave them money, but yea, I gave them some this weekend," said one of the protesters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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