JUST IN: The AP is reporting that a judge blocked plans for the hand-count of early ballots in Cochise County.
Officials with a southeastern Arizona county are still grappling with a controversy surrounding how to count ballots cast in the 2022 midterms, with just weeks left before election day. FOX 10's Irene Snyder has the latest on a meeting that took place on October 26.A proposal for votes to be hand-counted alongside a machine count in Cochise County has sparked statewide controversy as Election Day nears.
Stevens said he plans to start the hand-count after voting ends Tuesday and use more than 250 volunteers he’s recruited from three political parties, although the group is heavily tilted towards registered Republicans. He vowed to follow the law that lays out rules for the much-smaller hand-count audits done to check machine vote-counting equipment.
The two Republican supervisors who voted to do the 100% hand-count rather than the small sample done in every other election were pushed to do so by people who believe former President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that fraud or counting problems with voting machines led to his loss in 2020. The lone Democrat on the board opposed the hand-count.
"There’s far too much information that’s been presented today," McGinley said. "Far too much important testimony, far too much important argument, and quite honestly, far too important a question for this court to rush to an answer in an effort to get it done by 5 o’clock today." "I know that people have worked years to come up with a process," Stephenson said. "And then suddenly if my county is going down this other road, at this point, no, I do not trust that."
An informal opinion issued by the Arizona Attorney General's Office states that the Board of Supervisors can proceed with an expanded hand count audit of all ballots cast in all precincts within the county.
The county's Recorder, David Stevens, explains that under current statute, they are not limited to only hand-counting 2% of the ballots. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is running for governor, said she wants reassurances from the southeastern Arizona county that they will proceed in compliance with the law by 5PM on October 26. Failing that, the county will be taken to court. FOX 10's Stephanie Bennett reports.
Lorick said a specific Arizona statute cited in the measure approved for a "precinct hand count" details rules on how such a count can be carried out. For example early ballots, which comprise about 80% of votes in Arizona, cannot be included, Lorick said."I’m not sure how they hope to accomplish it. It’s sad that we have gotten to this state, and I know that they had an issue that they wanted to bring forward, but I’m not sure.
An emergency Board of Supervisors meeting is set to take place on Oct. 26 to discuss how to move forward. The supervisors could either decide to continue with the hand-cout and face a potentially costly lawsuit, or drop the idea altogether.A Board of Supervisors meeting was held to discuss the proposal. During the meeting, people supporting and opposing the proposal came to speak out.
Judd and Crosby were joined by the third supervisor, English, a Democrat who had encouraged her colleagues to rethink their stance. She had argued that the county’s insurance would not protect it from expected lawsuits.
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