Cochise County Board Of Supervisors To Be Sued For Failure To Certify The Vote (Updated)

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Update to Stunt By Two Rogue Republican Counties To Disenfranchise All Of Their County Voters Will Not Stand (Updated).

Jen Fifield reports for Vote Beat:

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Update:

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1597282196670525440?cxt=HHwWgMDRqb7s16osAAAA

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1597290410745155584?cxt=HHwWgMDS-c3K26osAAAA

Update:

Update:

The Arizona Mirror reports, After refusing to certify its election, Cochise County faces lawsuits to force it to do so:

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on Monday filed a lawsuit to force Cochise County officials to approve the results of this month’s election after Republicans on the board of supervisors failed to meet a deadline to canvass the election.

The board’s refusal to approve the election results stems from a stubborn insistence that the electronic tabulators the county uses have not been certified under state and federal law. Not only is that false, but state and federal election officials have gone out of their way to make sure that GOP county supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd know that the machines are properly certified.

State law says that county officials “shall” canvass the election within 20 days. In her lawsuit, Hobbs said the board is acting illegally “based on demonstrably false allegations” about the machines that are “frivolous.”

And if the court doesn’t step in and force the county to certify its election [it will], then Hobbs will have no choice but to exclude Cochise County votes from the statewide canvass, which is scheduled to take place Dec. 5 at the Capitol in Phoenix. Under state law, that statewide certification of the election must take place no later than Dec. 8.

Were that to happen, it would almost certainly change the outcome of some races. Cochise County is heavily Republican, and were votes in the county excluded, Republicans Tom Horne and Juan Ciscomani would go from winning their races for state superintendent of public instruction and Congress, respectively, to losing.

“The Board’s unprecedented inaction should not disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters in Cochise County,” Andy Gaona, an attorney for Hobbs, wrote in the lawsuit. “The Secretary thus brings this action to ensure that those voters’ voices are heard and their votes counted.”

Just to be clear, two MAGA/QAnon Republican election deniers in Cochise County would disenfranchise every voter in Cochise County, and would “dilute the vote” of every other voter in Arizona who voted for the certified winner of the elections that would be reversed if Cochise County’s votes are not counted. It is all on these two lawless MAGA/QAnon Republican county supervisors, and whomever else they may be conspiring with to create chaos in our election. It is not the fault of the Secretary of State who is duty bound to enforce the law.

If that happens, it “will cause irreparable harm” to all Arizonans, not just those voters whose votes would be ignored.

“In the current climate, this will instill further confusion and doubt into our election system,” Gaona wrote.

[On] Nov. 21, State Elections Director Kori Lorick sent the board a letter warning the supervisors that failing to canvass the election by the Monday deadline would prompt legal action.

In that letter, Lorick also reiterated that the machines used in every Arizona county, including Cochise, had been properly certified by the state and federal governments. She also attached a letter from the Election Assistance Commission, the federal entity that certifies all election equipment used in the United States, confirming that the machines used in Cochise County were properly certified and accredited.

But the board opted to ignore the warning when it met Nov. 28 and voted 2-1 to table the election canvass until Dec. 2. Supervisor Ann English, the only Democrat on the three-member board, was the lone vote to proceed with the canvass. [Criminal intent is established.]

Alex Gulotta, the state director for All Voting is Local Arizona, said Cochise County was undermining democracy by refusing to approve its election results.

“It’s astounding that Cochise County officials failed to certify the election results,” Gulotta said. “The refusal to certify the results is directly tied to those who would rather sow distrust in our electoral process than protect our democracy and ensure that all votes are counted.”

Hobbs’ lawsuit isn’t the only one seeking to compel the Cochise County Board of Supervisors to canvass its election. Earlier in the day, the Arizona Alliance of Retired Americans and a Cochise County voter filed a lawsuit that made many of the same arguments that Hobbs and the Secretary of State’s Office did.

Helen Purcell, the Republican Maricopa County recorder from 1988 to 2017, and Tammy Patrick, a Democrat, who served as federal compliance officer for Maricopa County from 2004 to 2014, in an op-ed explain, Democrats could win more seats if Cochise County refuses to certify election:

Voters − not elected politicians − decide the outcome of elections in this country. But in Cochise County, the board of supervisors is ignoring this bedrock principle of American democracy by threatening to refuse to canvass and certify the results of the 2022 election.

The board’s refusal to do its job would not only be illegal − it could also lead to the complete disenfranchisement of the county’s voters and potentially change the outcome in key races with thin margins.

As former Arizona election officials, we know well that Arizona law is clear: once the voters have spoken, it is the duty of the board of supervisors in each county to canvass the election results within 20 days of the election (this year, Nov. 28) and to send the certified results to the secretary of state so that the statewide canvass can be completed by the fourth Monday following the election (this year, Dec. 5).

Certification is a requirement, not a choice

This duty is not optional − it is mandatory. The law gives the board of supervisors no authority or discretion whatsoever to refuse this mandate. In fact, Arizona law plainly states that the supervisors board “has a non-discretionary duty to canvass the returns as provided by the County Recorder or other officer in charge of elections and has no authority (emphasis added) to change vote totals or reject the election results.” And a refusal to comply can even expose members of the board to criminal liability.

Despite this clear obligation, at a Nov. 18 meeting of the Cochise County Board of Supervisors, the board refused to canvass the results of the election and postponed further consideration to a meeting on Nov. 28, the deadline for the county to certify. [The board has again delayed its vote to Friday, December 2.]

The board’s refusal to do its duty and abide by the law was based on a completely debunked conspiracy theory that the election equipment used by the county was not properly certified. This claim is nonsense − it has already been rejected by the Arizona Supreme Court; by the state elections director; and by the Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency responsible for certifying election equipment.

Inaction has consequences, including the CD 6 race

Board members who voted against certification would face the very real prospect of civil and criminal penalties. And in all likelihood, they would achieve nothing, as Arizona courts would almost certainly step in and order the board to abide by its legal obligations and certify the results.

But in the unlikely event that the courts didn’t intervene, the board’s gambit would only hurt the voters of Cochise County and the candidates that they support.

If the board has still refused to certify by the Dec. 5 deadline for state certification (which can be extended to Dec. 8, but no later), the law requires that the secretary of state still move ahead with the statewide canvass of results. In that case, the statewide canvass would not include the results from Cochise County, which is heavily Republican.

This mass disenfranchisement of Cochise County voters − at the hands of their own board of supervisors − could result in flipping the final results in a number of tight races, with Republican candidates and voters paying the price. For example, Republican Juan Ciscomani would likely lose his congressional race to Democrat Kirsten Engel.

Cochise County voters could be disenfranchised

That decision could prove decisive in the race for state superintendent, handing Democrats a win over their Republican opponents. This outcome would be even more likely if another heavily Republican county, such as Mohave County, followed the lead of Cochise County and likewise refused to certify. [It did not.]

It is of course unconscionable for thousands of Arizona citizens to be disenfranchised, regardless of their political affiliation. One of us is a Republican and one of us is a Democrat, but we would never want to see the outright nullification of the ballots of voters from any party, even if it helped our preferred candidates.

But it is particularly ironic that a Republican-controlled board of supervisors could end up disenfranchising their own voters and hand Democrats even more victories in the midterms. This outcome would be undemocratic and unacceptable, but Cochise County voters would know exactly whom to blame − their own elected supervisors.





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