Cochise County To Defy Court Order For Illegal Hand Count of Ballots (Updated)

Above: Cochise County Supervisor Peggy Judd.

The Arizona Republic reports, Cochise County defying order, continuing recount plans:

Cochise County officials are proceeding with a hand count of every ballot cast in Tuesday’s election, despite a court ruling that bars them from doing so.

Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday authorized its attorney to appeal that ruling to the Arizona Supreme Court, complicating the timeline for when — or if — the controversial count would actually happen.

Recorder David Stevens acknowledged the order that blocks the county from hand counting all ballots. But, Stevens said, he was moving ahead on the advice of his attorney, Bryan Blehm [Note: Blehm is working with the AZ GQP’s lawyer Alexander Kolodin, so election denier Kelli Ward is involved behind the scenes.]

“I have to drive on as if it’s going to happen,” Stevens said, noting the law requires a [partial] hand count [audit] to begin within 24 hours of when the polls close on Election Day. He set a meeting for late Wednesday afternoon with the county’s political party chairmen to select the four ballot races to include in the hand count [audit].

If he doesn’t start the process Wednesday, Stevens said, critics could argue the county had missed the window to begin the unorthodox full count.

“I’m between a rock and a hard place,” he said.

Where’s the outrage for violating the Court’s lawful order?
This is just wrong.
…
Despite judge's order, Cochise County officials proceed with plans for a full hand count of ballots https://t.co/XI7tvr58wD via @azcentral

— Adrian Fontes (@Adrian_Fontes) November 10, 2022

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1590512970504998913?cxt=HHwWgsDQmdXH0ZIsAAAA

An attorney for the Arizona Alliance of Retired Americans, whose lawsuit blocked the hand count, was unaware of the plan to proceed and declined comment on what action, if any, plaintiffs would take.

On Monday, Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley granted the injunction and order sought by the retiree alliance to prevent the hand count.

McGinley, who handled the case at the request of the Cochise Superior Court, found there was nothing in state law that allows a 100% hand count. He also noted that although the supervisors’ stated intent was to use the hand count results as a check on the machine count of ballots, no one presented any evidence that machine counts were unreliable.

Supervisors Thomas Crosby and Peggy Judd, both [election denier] Republicans, disagreed with the ruling. Judd chalked up the ruling to political bias, writing that “It was in our judges DNA to side with the plaintiff.”

What happens next is unknown

On Wednesday, the two voted to follow Blehm’s advice to lodge an appeal. Chairwoman Ann English, a Democrat, objected. She has opposed the hand count since it was first proposed last month.

English said Wednesday’s vote authorized the county to pay Blehm, despite earlier intentions from Judd to use private funding so as to not put the cost on Cochise taxpayers. The Arizona Republic and azenctral.com has requested records on Blehm’s retainer and fees.

Blehm hung up when a reporter called seeking details of when an appeal would be filed, and where. But Stevens said the request would go directly to the state Supreme Court. [A special action.]

Until the legal issues are cleared up, other details of how and when the hand count would proceed are up the air, Stevens said.

He had a secure location set up for the actual counting to begin early next week, but indicated he might not be able to keep it beyond Tuesday. With every day that passes, Steven said, he risks losing some of the 180 volunteers who have said they’d work on the hand count. “People have lives,” he said.

The hand count, if it proceeds, must be done by Nov. 18. Stevens said he has the authority to call it off if it becomes impossible to meet that deadline.

I can assure you that a special action will not be completed before next Friday, unless the Arizona Supreme Court denies the County’s petition outright, in which case Cochise County loses. So Mr. Stevens, I would advise you to use your authority to cancel a full hand count. These rogue Supervisors cannot require you to violate a court order or to violate state law. Use your common sense man.

Judge Casey McGinley should hold these two rogue Republican County Supervisors in contempt of Court for defying his order and state law, and fine them “bigly.”

UPDATE: Looks like this lawless attempt by rogue Republican Supervisors and County Recorder David Stevens and the AZ GQP to create a “mini-Fraudit” hand count of all the ballots before the vote must be certified has run into a  judicial roadblock.

The Sierra Vista Herald reports, Supreme Court says no to transfer of hand-count case from Appeals Court:

As Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby and County Recorder David Stevens attempt to proceed with a limited hand count of ballots, ignoring the temporary injunction against it, they decided to request their case go directly to the Arizona Supreme Court as recommended by attorneys Bryan Blehm and Alexander Kolodin.

The court said not so fast.

In a Nov. 10 letter to the county, Arizona Supreme Court Justice William Montgomery released a ruling denying the attorneys’ requests to transfer the case from the Arizona Court of Appeals directly to the Supreme Court.

The attorneys provided arguments that claimed the case “presents statewide importance of the novel issue of pure law” and the statutory hand count deadline “will preclude review by the Arizona Appeals Courts.”

Montgomery did not accept the arguments and denied the transfer.

Arizona Court of Appeals Division II presiding Judge Karl C. Eppich stated in a Nov. 10 ruling the “expedited election appeal is not applicable in this case,” just as Stevens “conceded” in a phone conference.

Eppich also denied the motion to transfer the case and stated the “matter shall proceed as a non–expedited appeal according to the rules of civil appellate procedure.” He set a date for documents on the appeal to be submitted to the court no later than Dec. 12.

Appellate Judge Christopher Staring agreed with Eppich’s decision but Appellate Judge Sean Brearcliffe dissented and said the motion should be granted and he would “accept the opening brief and order an expedited briefing schedule.”

The injunction against any forward movement on a hand count as handed down by Pima Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley on Nov. 7 is still in effect. The American Alliance of Retired People and Democrat Stephanie Stevenson filed suit against the county for the unauthorized hand count and the judge ruled in their favor.

In addition, County Attorney Brian McIntyre noted in a letter to the attorney for Elections Director Lisa Marra and all the parties involved on legal ramifications of moving forward on an expanded count. He noted in the letter there were several legal issues to be faced if the count moved forward.

One of the issues he noted in the Nov. 10 letter concerned a possible felony charge if anyone interferes in any manner with an election officer in performing election duties.

Another is “Knowingly and unlawfully carries away ballots from the possession of the person authorized by law to have custody.”

A third states: “A person who disobeys or resists the lawful order, process or the mandate of a court or interferes with judicial proceedings.”

Lastly, “A person commits conspiracy if, with the intent to promote or aid in the commission of an offense, such person agrees with one or more persons that that at least one of them will engage in conduct constituting the offense and commits an overt act.”

I would argue that the Supervisors attorneys are also part of this conspiracy to violate the law.

He also stated, “I have alerted the appropriate authorities to the potential violations based upon the statement of two elected officials connected to this.”

McIntyre said he sent the letter “to advise all parties involved, of our position if any efforts are made to move forward despite the court’s order.”

On Tuesday, Nov. 15, in the regular 10 a.m. meeting at the county complex on Melody Lane,the supervisors will discuss attorney fees being charged by Blehm and Kolodin.

Judd and Crosby claimed they had secured outside money to pay the fees, but County Administrator Richard Karwaczka signed a contract on behalf of the county with Blehm’s law firm. A $10,000 retaining fee is required and Blehm will receive $325 per hour.

Though Judd and Crosby said they had outside money to pay for the attorney fees, no secured donors or the amounts of their donations have been provided.

At 1 p.m. Nov. 15, there will be a special meeting of the supervisors to discuss modifying the Oct. 24 decision regarding a hand count audit down to 99% of the ballots, instead of 100%. They would allow Stevens to hold the hand count as soon as possible to beat the canvass deadline of Friday, Nov. 18, at which time the supervisors will hold a special meeting at 4 p.m. to approve the canvass as presented by Marra.

According to the meeting document, Judd, Crosby and Stevens have gathered more than 200 volunteers [MAGA/QAnon election deniers because the AZ Democratic Party will not participate in this lawlessness] to perform the hand count to assure voters the election results were reliable and secure.

However, in talking with some of those who signed up to help but do not want to be identified, they said they did so “under duress” and only signed up to make sure the hand count would be done legally with no interference from Republican ballot counters. They are not in favor of the count at all.

According to the meeting document as submitted by Judd, “Two other results of this hand count will be simply a larger random selection audit of machine accuracy and a test of our backup plan in case some or all of our machines become compromised or fail at the last minute. The Arizona Revised Statutes have never prohibited hand count, even when adding provisions for using the machines for counting. County Recorder David Stevens, our state senator and representatives are in support of this and will be able to follow through with proper action in the Legislature as needed.

“As a result of the politically derived ruling received Nov. 7, on the eve of the General Election Day, a restrictive and damaging precedent will be set. Our hand count should proceed legally according to limitations set within that document to provide a positive path forward for Cochise County and other who desire more transparent elections.”

There has been no public statement as to where the count will be held other than in Sierra Vista at a donated location. Also not released publicly is an official plan of how the ballots will be secured in transferring them to the site nor how the count will be conducted and tallied.

You should note what is missing from all this: Attorney General Mark Brnovich and his crack Election Integrity Unit (EIU), which is supposed to enforce state law. His office actually provided an “informal” opinion to that the Supervisors could do a full hand count of the ballots. This partisan hack is just as lawless as they are, possibly a co-conspirator. If Democratic County Supervisors in, let’s say Pima County, had done this, Brnovich would already have charged them with violating state law.

Supervisors in Pinal County, a much larger and growing suburban area just south of metro Phoenix’s Maricopa County, also have been considering a hand count. Both boards have meetings planned for next week to discuss the issue.

The elected Republican county attorneys in both jurisdictions have warned their respective boards there is no legal authority to expand a hand-count of ballots.

“It would be illegal at this point to do a full hand count,” Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer told his board on Wednesday.

Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre has told the board he also believes a full hand count is illegal and said the board and county Recorder David Stevens would need to find outside attorneys if they went ahead. He repeated that Friday, after Supervisor Judd said Brnovich had given the go-ahead.

He also noted that the effort runs afoul of a legal doctrine set up by the U.S. Supreme Court that says election rules and procedures can’t be changed close to an election.

The culture of corruption in the AZ GQP runs wide and deep. They all must go.