BISBEE, Ariz. (KGUN) — After drama and delay Cochise County Supervisors certified their county election results—after a judge ordered them to do it.
Supervisors had trouble finding a lawyer to take their case. The Cochise County Attorney took a wave off, saying he wouldn’t help break the law. They finally got a lawyer Thursday morning but asked for a delay so he could get up to speed on the case. The judge ruled no and told them to go right out and certify the vote.
The Secretary of State and another group sued after Cochise County Supervisors did not certify election results on Monday as the law required.
Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd had raised questions about the validity of voting machines since a few weeks before the election. They tried and failed to have all ballots counted by hand.
When they failed to certify on time Monday, Crosby and Judd voted to delay until Friday and hear from what Crosby called subject matter experts on voting systems. He also wanted to hear from the Secretary of State’s elections office.
But in court Crosby cited another reason for pushing certification to Friday.
“Our intention is to vote on this issue tomorrow (Friday) and there is no bad faith. The reason it was not voted on the 26th, last Monday is it was misagendized on the agenda. I corrected that and that was the correct agenda you may have seen on the 2nd.”
Supervisor Ann English wanted to certify the vote without delay. She said Crosby really had something else in mind for that Friday meeting.
“The reason they wanted to wait until tomorrow is Supervisor Crosby indicated through the agenda that tomorrow he would like to have sort of a smackdown between the Secretary of State and the election deniers that he has on the agenda.”
To avoid a conflict of interest, Pima Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley held the hearing in Cochise County. He ruled that the law did not give Cochise Supervisors a choice on whether to certify or when to certify the results. He ordered Supervisors to hold an emergency meeting and certify the results before the end of the day—and they did.
The Secretary of State said if supervisors here did not certify results, state election results might not include any Cochise County votes. That would have made winners in two close races into losers. Juan Ciscomani would not have won a seat in Congress after all and Tom Horne would not have been elected as school superintendent.