The Cochise County Board of Supervisors in southeast Arizona agreed to delay certification of the 2022 general election until Friday, missing the Monday deadline.
On November 8, over 47,000 ballots were cast in the county of Cochise, which contains the county seat of Bisbee and the well-known tourist resort of Tombstone.
After hearing arguments for and against the ruling, the board is to reconsider certification of the election on Friday.
The head of the board, Democrat Ann English, stated on Monday, “There is no reason for us to delay” the certification of the election, but Republican supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd voted against her, according to NPR.
#BREAKING Cochise County tabled certification of 2022 election to Dec. 2
— Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) November 28, 2022
Concerned about the accuracy and security of tabulation machines, the board had voted before to the election to undertake a comprehensive audit of the ballots by manual counting.
Katie Hobbs, then-Secretary of State and Democratic candidate for governor, threatened to sue the county if it conducted a thorough hand count.
“The Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, a civil rights group, and a Cochise County resident sued to block the expanded audit, arguing it was illegal,” the AZ Mirror reported.
“Lawyers from Elias Law — the firm founded by Marc Elias, who typically represents Democrats and often litigates voting rights cases — argued for the plaintiffs,” the news outlet noted.
On the Monday preceding the November 8 election, a court decided that the county could not perform its enlarged election audit because state law mandates that at least 2% of voting precincts be picked at random.
“By common definition, a selection of precincts is not random if all precincts are chosen,” noted Judge Casey McGinley of the Pima County Superior Court.
Elias tweeted on Monday that his business has once again sued Cochise County over its board’s refusal to certify the election.
🚨BREAKING: Arizona @ActiveRetirees and Arizona voter file lawsuit against the Cochise County Board of Supervisors for its refusal to canvass the election results of the 2022 midterm elections.https://t.co/EfBLAfynZo
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 28, 2022
More on this story via The Western Journal:
The secretary of state’s office plans to file a lawsuit as well, spokeswoman Sophia Solis said in an email to NPR.
The move by the Cochise board came as the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted Monday to certify its election, despite widespread vote tabulator and printers issues on Election Day leading to hours-long lines at multiple polling locations. CONTINUE READING…