As Cochise County Recorder, Anne Carl will Take on the Culture of Corruption and Conspiracy Fanaticism 

Integrity, Competence, and Expertise. 

Those are the attributes seasoned Educator and Attorney Anne Carl will bring to the Cochise County Recorders Office if elected to that position this November. 

For the residents of Cochise County, that would be a welcome breath of fresh air as current recorder David Stevens has made an infamous name for himself in advancing baseless election conspiracy theories and wasting $200,000 of the county taxpayer’s money on special ballot paper that was not needed. 

Endorsed by the one county supervisor who has not been recently indicted, Ms. Carl vowed to bring a culture of integrity, competence, and expertise in the law to the County Recorder’s office if she takes office in January. 

Ms. Carl graciously agreed to respond to questions about her candidacy. 

The questions and her responses are below.

• Please tell the readers about yourself and why you want to become the Cochise County Recorder. 

“I’ve been in Arizona 35 years. I love this state and this County in particular. I adopted it as my own when I moved here in 2003 to work for the Cochise County Attorney’s office. I was just starting out as an attorney, and a prosecutor, but then soon began representing County offices including the County Recorder and the County Elections Department, as well as school districts. I had been a teacher before then.”

“I will follow the law, keeping myself out of trouble, doing the job. We have real needs. Our country as a whole has to get a grip and start working together, looking at what we’re doing for one another as a community.”

“I oppose extremism on the left and the right, especially cancel culture. I think this position is ideal for me because, long before I was a teacher, community organizer, and attorney, I was a waitress and I really believe in good service to all comers. I believe in transparency and providing what is expected. I’ll administer in ways that actually follow the law and respond to people’s needs. That’s the service I’ll provide.”

“Our current County Recorder weaponized his office against perceived political adversaries and has wasted money that that we didn’t have. You may have seen the CNN presentation about five tons of ballot paper in the service of a conspiracy theory. Well, it was actually ten tons, and it’s still sitting in a warehouse up in Phoenix. We also have a Dandy Roll that we didn’t need, a giant – too heavy to move – ballot paper stamping device. That’s sitting somewhere up in Canada, I believe. We didn’t need them because we have a very secure ballot system with different checks and balances. Nonetheless, the guy I’m running against, the incumbent since the 2016 election, David Stevens felt that we did need them because he chases conspiracy theories. In that case, it was about a Chinese ballot paper getting into our system, and bamboo fibers were allegedly found in the paper. There was no evidence at all that there actually was, yet Stevens promoted a solution to this so-called problem that didn’t exist.”

“Anyway, that spurred me to action. Also, after the 2022 election, I was involved in the recall campaign of Tom Crosby who is on our Cochise County Board of Supervisors, one of our two now indicted supervisors and we have only three here. 

The Tom Crosby recall effort was unfortunately unsuccessful. Our county is very red and there are many devoted Crosby fans, people like the guy I’m running against, who aren’t interested in doing what the law says. But making up the rules for oneself as an elected official is not what our democratic institutions are all about. We elect people to make the laws and elect other people to apply the laws unless they’re unconstitutional, in which case, I too would have taken issue with them.”

• What are two issues you’ll be running on in this campaign?

“Competence and integrity. Voters and other users should be able to trust our Recorder and how documents, early Elections, and voter rolls are being handled.

My opponent regularly sows seeds of doubt. Though he says he “lives by” wanting to make “cheating hard and voting easy,” he promotes 100% hand counts of ballots, a costly, time-consuming method that would cheat us all of an accurate count. He would also like to limit voting to a single calendar day, which would disenfranchise or inconvenience most people. Some will remember that he worked closely with our County Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, both indicted now, to force County Election Director Lisa Marra to conduct an illegal 100% hand count of 2022 Midterm ballots. When she refused and they sued her for it, our incumbent Recorder David Stevens attempted to facilitate and lead such a count himself. 

Stevens promotes such ideas not simply for Cochise County, but for our whole State. That is, he co-authored a 100% hand count bill with Gail Griffin last year. Governor Hobbs immediately vetoed it, but your readers should know: that he used to be in the Legislature and still influences many of them. He also co-founded the so-called “Election Fairness Institute” with Mark Finchem, though he’s no longer on that board, so Cochise County is but a small part of his grand plan to remake elections.

In any case, I campaign on many issues, but they include educating and reassuring voters about 1. the history, reliability, and ongoing testing and retesting of our ballot tabulation machines, which are paper-based, not connected to the internet, and which incorporate substantial, randomized hand counts; and 2. how reliable and essential the mail-in ballot process is. I, my elderly parents, and military family members all depend and/or have depended on it. Getting rid of it would disenfranchise many and harm our democracy.

Our current system of voting, of course, unless or until something about it becomes actually unreliable or unnecessary, needs champions like me who promote it along with ballot tracking security measures. These are available now and make mail-in ballots even more secure. What we don’t need are those who join our enemies in denigrating and suggesting or spreading falsehoods about our democracy, especially when they are our elected leaders. That’s been untenable.”

• What are at least three reasons the voters should choose you over your opponent? 

“First, I won’t abuse my authority for partisan or baldly personal ends. I happen to be a Democrat, and I have been a Republican and also a Green Party member in the past. But none of that belongs in this office. It is not a part of the job, nor is it helpful. When elected, I plan to be everyone’s County Recorder, not just a champion for friends of mine or those within my Party. That will be a departure from the representation we’ve got now. 

For example, over a year ago, David Stevens threw his official weight around to try and have an elderly couple circulating a Tom Crosby Recall Petition near the Hereford Post Office arrested. Supervisor Crosby is David Stevens’ close friend and political ally. Ostensibly as part of his official election-related duties at the time, Stevens called the Sheriff on this couple. He then showed up to meet Sheriff deputies who at first hastily and threateningly surrounded the couple on an empty dirt lot with their four vehicles. 

Stevens claimed the circulators were and had been standing on Post Office property. But that was untrue. As the keeper of County deeds, etc., he should have known that; the information was at his fingertips. But he failed to do due diligence. This was not a one-off. He also makes a habit of failing to bring the right paperwork to consecutive Board of Supervisors meetings.

So the second way I will distinguish myself from him is by working harder than he does now in order to do my due diligence and come prepared.

Third and finally, I will be more responsive, such as to easy and legitimate Public Records Requests, than he has been. After this Hereford Post Office debacle, Stevens received at least one Public Records request for a copy of the purported “complaint” that had caused him to try and have the Hereford petition circulating couple arrested. In a video taken during the incident, Stevens is clearly seen scrolling through his smartphone to the complaint, while telling onlookers that he is looking at it.

But that PRR, like many others made over a year ago, is still unanswered. The law required his “prompt” response. I will be more responsive than he has been.”

• Please describe your get-out-the-vote operation and how your campaign will appeal to Democrats, Independents, and like-minded Republicans?

“Daily door-to-door canvassing is the main thing right now. I personally go and also make a point of ringing every doorbell, regardless of Party or Non-party affiliation and regardless of “No Solicitation” signs, which only apply here to those with a commercial purpose, so not me. I’ve had many excellent conversations with people across all demographics. Though certainly not everyone is glad to see me, many seem open to listening if not resonating with my message that we’re all “tired of the drama and expenses we shouldn’t have to have to pay for.” I include my phone number on door hangers for folks to reach me later. 

We’re all neighbors down here, even though we’re a big county geographically, bigger than Connecticut and Rhode Island put together. We share common problems that need solutions. What we don’t need are more Recorder office distractions. We need to function. We want economic development,  and that includes having a local government that people in business and others can rely on. In addition to managing key parts of Elections (early ballots, mail-in ballots, provisional ballots, the voter rolls), the County Recorder archives our most important documents so we and others can easily find them later. This is to establish ownership and identity in some cases, to prevent fraud, and to generally and specifically know what’s going on. All of this is important to creating a reliable, functioning business climate.

My website (www.CarlforCochise.com) features a green button where people can update their voter registration, sign up for Ballottrax, etc.

Late at night, I also work to “get out the vote” by scrolling through area lists of LinkedIn members. I invite new people to connect and learn about my campaign. I’ll take this opportunity to urge your readers to connect their own Cochise County-area friends and contacts with me. Anyone can reach out through www.CarlforCochise.com, Linked-In, FB, X…”

• Is there anything not covered in the first four questions that you would like readers to know about you and your candidacy for Cochise County Recorder? 

“I have been endorsed by Ann English, the only County Supervisor who hasn’t been indicted; Christine Rhodes, who for 43 years was our County Recorder, and am supported by many others – from all parties, even by some who support Trump.”

“Democrats are outnumbered by Republicans here by almost two-to-one, but there are almost as many Independents as there are Republicans. And David Stevens has made some wrong turns, so I’m working hard to convince people from across the political spectrum that I’m their man, so to speak.”

Please click here if you would like to find out more information about Anne Carl and her candidacy for Cochise County Recorder.