Arizona and Wisconsin certified presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden as winning those states Monday, even as President Trump’s attorneys urged Republican state legislators to override Mr. Biden’s victory and choose presidential electors for Mr. Trump.
In Georgia, state officials announced a limited investigation into allegations of voter fraud, although they said it was unlikely to overturn Mr. Biden’s win there.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, certified that Mr. Biden won the state by 0.3 percentage points, or 10,457 votes. She also certified that Democrat Mark Kelly defeated Republican Sen. Martha McSally. Mr. Kelly will be sworn in Wednesday to serve the final two years of the six-year term of the late Sen. John McCain, a Republican who died in 2018.
The certification process was overseen by three Republicans: Gov. Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel.
The certification triggers the appointment of Arizona’s electors, who will cast 11 Electoral College votes for Mr. Biden on Dec. 14, unless a court steps in.
Mr. Trump took to Twitter to accuse Mr. Ducey of “rushing” to certify the result.
“Why is he rushing to put a Democrat in office, especially when so many horrible things concerning voter fraud are being revealed at the hearing going on right now,” the president tweeted. He warned that “Republicans will long remember.”
Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani told Republican legislators at a hearing in Phoenix on Monday that the state Legislature must overturn the election results because of suspected fraud in mail-in ballots.
“This is probably the wrong tactic, but we’re down near the end,” Mr. Giuliani told the legislators in a hotel ballroom. “I’m going to ask you to implore other members of the Legislature to stand up to this. Do not be bullied. Do not be frightened.”
Mr. Trump also phoned in during the hearing and thanked witnesses for coming forward to detail election irregularities they witnessed in the battleground state.
He also took another jab at Mr. Ducey for certifying the results instead of waiting for the president’s attorneys to present their witnesses. The hearing lasted more than seven hours.
“What is that all about with Ducey? He couldn’t go fast enough,” the president said during his phone call.
Mr. Giuliani argued that the Legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, has the power to choose presidential electors regardless of popular vote totals.
“You can take it back,” he said. “Every dishonest vote disenfranchises the decent people who cast an honest vote. Have the courage to do that.”
Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis also urged the legislators to choose the presidential electors for Mr. Trump, who won the state in 2016. She said it is not a case of overturning the popular vote, but of making sure “the corruption does not stand.”
“We are going to ask you as legislators to reclaim that authority,” she said.
Outside the hearing room, Trump supporters held a “Stop the Steal” rally. One speaker vowed that they would support primary opponents in 2022 and 2024 against any Republican elected official who doesn’t stand with Mr. Trump now.
“These rallies are the American people rising up,” said conservative speaker Nick Fuentes.
State Rep. Mark Finchem, Oro Valley Republican, said he called the hearing as an “objective forum” to assess any evidence of election irregularities.
“We are caught between the desire to trust the process and the suspicion that it has failed the people of Arizona,” Mr. Finchem said.
“We’ve asked for an audit,” Mr. Finchem said on PSCP.tv during a break in the hearing. “We’re going to take whatever remedies we can ferret out.”
He said the group of Republican legislators will propose a resolution to the full Legislature within two days but couldn’t say what action they will seek.
Republican state Sen.-elect Nancy Barto, currently a state House member, said the hearing was needed because “there’s a lack of confidence in our election system. We need to restore confidence.”
State Senate Majority Whip Sonny Borrelli said of the event, “We are here for clarity and transparency.”
The hearing, which did not involve a committee of the Legislature and lacked subpoena power, was livestreamed on the internet but was not aired by major cable news networks. The president tweeted while the hearing was underway, “Why isn’t @FoxNews covering the Arizona hearings?”
Mr. Trump has been urging his followers on social media to boycott the network ever since it declared Mr. Biden the winner of Arizona on Nov. 3.
Mr. Giuliani questioned witnesses, including retired Army Col. Phil Waldron, a specialist on information warfare, who said voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems are vulnerable to manipulation.
“Your vote is not as secure as your Venmo account,” Mr. Waldron said.
But Mr. Giuliani noted that he hasn’t been able to show fraud in Arizona’s voting machines because the Trump team hasn’t been able to conduct what Mr. Waldron called a “forensic audit.”
Mr. Waldron also cited an anonymous email to the Justice Department alleging that 35,000 fraudulent votes were added to each Democratic candidate on the ballot in Pima County. He said he was unable to identify the sender of the email.
“We hoped this individual would come forward and issue this as an affidavit,” he said.
Mr. Giuliani said the presidential election “was the subject of a conspiracy that goes back before the election … hatched by the crooked leaders of the Democratic Party” to exploit the increasing use of mail-in ballots.
“The very, very top of the Democratic Party has been corrupted since [Bill] Clinton,” Mr. Giuliani said. “[Mr. Trump] threatens them with destroying the corrupt system they have been enjoying in Washington since Bill Clinton got there.”
Several legislators expressed concern that as many as 36,000 illegal immigrants could have voted in the election in Arizona despite being ineligible.
The Trump legal team held a similar hearing before Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania last week with witness testimony, including from Mr. Waldron, who estimated that 1.2 million votes were altered in that swing state.
Sidney Powell, who is not on the president’s legal team but is filing pro-Trump lawsuits, sued officials in Michigan and Georgia alleging Dominion Voting Systems software switched tens of thousands of votes for Mr. Trump to Mr. Biden.
A hearing in the Georgia lawsuit has been scheduled for Friday.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, referring to the president’s numerous challenges to the election, said Monday in a post on Twitter, “74,000,000 Americans stood with @realdonaldtrump in this election and he will not forget them. We are fighting to the end. Count every LEGAL vote and stand up to corruption!”
Dominion is not listed as a defendant in the cases, but the company has repeatedly denied wrongdoing or that its machines were manipulated in the election.
“Sidney Powell’s wild and reckless allegations are not only demonstrably false, they have led to stalking, harassment, and death threats to Dominion employees,” the company said in statement. “This criminal activity has been duly reported to the appropriate law enforcement agencies, and we intend to hold Ms. Powell, and those aiding and abetting her fraudulent actions, accountable for any harm that may occur as a result.”
Four weeks after the election, Mr. Trump appears far from his goal of reversing the projected outcome.
The most likely path to victory for Mr. Trump would have been through Pennsylvania. If somehow he still prevailed there, he would also need to reverse projected losses in at least two other states to reach the 270 electoral votes required to win the White House.
The campaign fought to make up ground in Wisconsin, with a recount in two of the state’s largest counties, but that recount wrapped up Sunday without flipping the results and Mr. Biden ended up netting a few dozen more votes.
Ms. Ellis said the recount, though, revealed issues with absentee ballots.
“The recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties have revealed serious issues regarding the legality of ballots cast. As we have said from the very beginning, we want every legal vote, and only legal votes, to be counted, and we will continue to uphold our promise to the American people to fight for a free and fair election,” she said.
Wisconsin certified its results Monday evening with a Biden win by about 20,700 votes.
Mr. Trump plans to file a lawsuit over that result Tuesday.
In Georgia, the Trump campaign requested that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger perform an audit of the November election to review signatures on absentee ballot envelopes.
It is the fifth time that Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, has been asked to perform such a review. According to the president’s campaign, 38,250 to 45,626 mail-in ballots were cast unlawfully.
In a six-page letter to Mr. Raffensperger with several exhibits attached, the campaign noted that the 2016 general election had a rejection rate of 2.9% for faulty absentee ballots. Despite an increase in absentee ballots from the presidential election four years ago, the rejection rate significantly decreased to 0.34% in 2020.
“Until the signatures are matched, the vote count in Georgia is a complete fraud,” said Mr. Giuliani. “There is no way of knowing which ballots are honest and which ballots are fraudulent.”
Georgia officials certified the election for Mr. Biden after a hand recount. The Trump campaign is pushing to have the certification reversed.
Mr. Biden defeated Mr. Trump by about 12,600 votes, or a 0.2 percentage point margin. The certification awards Mr. Biden the state’s 16 electoral votes.
Despite defending the results, Mr. Raffensperger announced Monday that there are investigations into allegations of voter fraud, including groups working to register voters ahead of the Jan. 5 Senate runoff.
A spokesperson for his office told reporters, though, that the 250 cases being examined likely aren’t enough to flip the presidential results.
State voting systems manager Gabriel Sterling said the state is investigating a charge that there were more absentee mail ballots than there are ballot envelopes in Gwinett County.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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