No Arizona Law Allows Senators with Identical Twin to Be Replaced by Sibling for Rest of Term – MASHAHER

Claim:

An obscure 1909 law in Arizona allows a U.S. senator’s identical twin to replace them for the remainder of their term.

Rating:

On July 24, 2024, an X user claimed a little-known law in Arizona allows a U.S. senator with an identical twin to be replaced by their sibling to see out the rest of the elected official’s term (archived).

The rumor appeared as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who on July 21 announced her intention to lead the Democratic ticket in the 2024 election, prepared to pick a vice-presidential running mate.

The X user said choosing Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly would be advantageous as there would be no requirement to hold a “special election” to fill his seat.

“An obscure Arizona law on the books from 1909 allows for any Senator with an identical twin to be replaced by that identical twin for the remainder of their term,” the X user wrote:

The post, which had amassed more than 680,000 views at the time of this writing, included a photo of Kelly and his twin brother, Scott, both of whom were astronauts at NASA.

However, the claim was entirely fictional. Two minutes after publishing it, the X user posted a meme suggesting the source of the rumor was that they “made it up” (archived):

Nonetheless, Snopes examined Arizona’s statutes on procedures to fill vacancies in the offices of a U.S. senator or representative and confirmed that such a law about identical twins replacing elected officials was an invention.

Therefore, we rated this claim as “False.”

Sources:

Arizona Revised Statutes. https://www.azleg.gov/arsDetail/?title=16. Accessed 29 July 2024.

View Document. https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/16/00222.htm. Accessed 29 July 2024.