Arizona election laws lay out a detailed procedure for randomly choosing which Election Day ballots are chosen for the hand-count, Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey F. McGinley said in the ruling.
By Bob Christie The Associated Press PHOENIX — A judge on Monday blocked a rural Arizona county's plan to conduct a full hand-count of ballots from the current election — a measure requested by Republican officials who expressed unfounded concerns that vote-counting machines are untrustworthy.
The opponents — a group of retirees who sued in court to stop a full hand-count — argued that state law only allows a small hand-count of early ballots to ensure the counting machines are accurate. Group members argued that a last-minute change would create chaos and potentially delay certification of the election results. Cochise County Elections Director Lisa Marra also opposes the plan for the expanded count and testified about how it could delay results and imperil ballot security.
“This entire process would be rendered superfluous if the court were to construe to initially select 100% of the precinct ballots as its starting point,” the judge wrote. Republican Cochise County Recorder David Stevens, who has been charged by the county board of supervisors with conducting the count, testified last week that he has plans to do so in one of four locations he has scouted in the Sierra Vista. The city is the largest in the border county of about 130,000 residents. Located southeast of Tucson, the county extends to the New Mexico border.
A Nevada county is also pushing a full hand-count to mollify Trump supporters but is battling with the secretary of state over rules for the count, while leaders of another GOP-led Arizona county rejected a similar effort last week.
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