Sky Shout/KJZZ
Early voting for the 2022 Arizona midterm elections.
A bipartisan watchdog group that successfully sued the Arizona Senate to obtain records related to a so-called “audit” of Maricopa County elections in 2020 is now setting its sights on Cochise County.
American Oversight reports internal and external communications regarding the decision by two Republican county supervisors to delay the certification of the 2022 election and their attempt to force a complete hand count of 2022 ballots in violation of the law. filed a lawsuit against the county seeking documents related to election administration, including State Law.
Republican County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby initially refused to certify county elections by the legally mandated November 2022 deadline, resulting in the county losing about 47,000 votes. endangered. Ultimately, the judge ordered an oversight board meeting to certify the results. A few days later.
Mr. Judd and Mr. Crosby pleaded not guilty in December to felony charges related to their decision to delay certification of the election.
In a separate case, a state appellate court ruled that counties did not have the authority to order complete hand counting of ballots. The lawsuit was filed by voting rights groups after Mr. Crosby and Mr. Judd passed a resolution requiring county recorders to hand count the county's ballots.
Heather Sawyer, executive director of American Oversight, said the organization's purpose is twofold. One is to shed light on the board's actions, and the other is to prevent the Election Commission from going down a similar path in the future.
“It's important to understand what was going on in order to understand what might happen in the future and, frankly, to prevent other actions that could jeopardize the votes of Arizonans. It’s very important,” Sawyer said.
American Oversight reviewed various records, including internal and external communications, to understand who Judd and Crosby were talking to and how much public money was spent on their efforts. I'm looking for.
“So we need the public to really understand the whole spectrum of costs to them, the rationale behind their actions and who they were communicating with. Who did that?'' Sawyer said.
Sawyer argues that, unlike the lawsuit filed against the Arizona Senate, Cochise County has not outright denied the records request and that the documents the group is seeking are not subject to Arizona public records law. He said he had not.
“They've said, 'We'll work on it,' but they haven't really responded,” she said.
