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, 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,...
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