Former Gov. Jan Brewer asks Republicans to quit saying Arizona’s elections are insecure

PHOENIX — Former Gov. Jan Brewer urged Republicans to restore public faith in elections in a Tuesday op-ed for The Arizona Republic.

It’s the party’s responsibility, she said during an interview with KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos that same day.

“I believe that we’ve got some deniers out there that are creating havoc,” Brewer said.

Much of the misinformation spreading around elections being corrupt is killing the electoral system, she added.

“We have to have faith in that or we have nothing,” Brewer said. “I think everybody in their heart, they know you can’t keep going down this path. It’s killing us.”

What’s with the lack of faith in elections?

In her op-ed, Brewer said many Republicans and right-leaning Independents have little faith in elections. Many have told her they don’t think their votes will be accurately counted this November.

Many of these voters are gun shy, she said. Although they’re hesitant to believe all American elections are compromised, the barrage of repeated messaging confuses them.

“They don’t want to believe it, but … it just keeps coming and filling their head full of all this rhetoric,” Brewer said. “They begin to doubt the system.”

For example, 2022 Election Day ballot-printing issues in Maricopa County convinced many Arizonans there was corruption.

Senatorial hopeful Kari Lake claimed Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer intentionally printed 19-inch ballot images on 20-inch paper to sway the election.

However, an independent investigation found that election officials had no way of anticipating potential issues. Richer later sued Lake over these accusations in a case that’s still playing out in court.

Brewer said mistakes like this can happen, and they shouldn’t be automatically designated as signs of corruption.

“They say, ‘The paper wasn’t the right size.’ Well, that’s a fact. It wasn’t the right size at a couple of the voting places,” Brewer said. “But … it was corrected.”

She expressed disbelief that detractors weren’t satisfied after the ballot sizing issue was corrected.

“It wasn’t enough that it was corrected,” she said. “We’ve had hiccups in our election, but not enough to make a difference in the vote count.”

Former Gov. Jan Brewer says election denialism hurts Republicans

Brewer, who was an early advocate for Trump, said she doesn’t regret supporting him during his campaign trail in 2016. She said she thought he was a breath of fresh air.

“He did a lot of good things, but this election denial stuff has got to stop,” she said. “We have to put this behind us and move on or we won’t have a democracy at all.”

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