Governor Mays instead released a formal opinion late Friday, stating that the current election law requires the county to implement a full manual count of ballots cast on Election Day and early-cast by mail. said to prevent it from doing so.

The new opinion follows a judge’s ruling that prevented Cochise County officials from conducting a full manual tally as ordered by the Republican-controlled county’s oversight board after the November election. Judges have consulted the Attorney General’s opinion for important guidance in interpreting state law, but it is not legally binding.

In the weeks leading up to the Nov. 7 election, two Republican members of the Cochise County Oversight Board pointed to questions raised by former President Donald Trump and his supporters about the accuracy and safety of electronic ballot counting machines. and justified their decision. They did so even though there was no evidence that the machine was inaccurate or vulnerable to hacking.

Former Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovic backed the acting attorney general when he had them issue an informal opinion just over a week before the election, concluding that their plan had passed legal mobilization. However, contrary to official opinion, Brnovic did not sign the document.

Retirement groups sued Cochise County, and Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley ruled the day before the election that full manual counting is prohibited by law.

The judge pointed to detailed instructions that Congress has set on how to conduct election day sampling and manual counts of early votes, as well as rules on escalating audits when numbers don’t match. He said the number of early ballots would be severely limited unless the results were inconsistent, but starting with counting all the ballots by hand on Election Day would be a way to randomly select ballots for sampling. It writes that it violates the rule that requires

The county board is still appealing this decision.

In a signed opinion, Mays wrote that Brnovic had misunderstood the law and should not have bypassed the agency’s normal process for issuing opinions.

“After further consideration of the statute and (the judge’s) decision, the agency concluded that the informal opinion misunderstood the applicable law,” Mays wrote. “Also, informal opinions not signed by the Attorney General should not be issued in the same manner as formal opinions.”

Mays took office in January after narrowly defeating Republican Abe Hamade in November’s election, the first time in decades that Democrats were elected to all three Arizona’s top constituencies.

Mays has accused Brnovic of politicizing the presidency and has reversed or taken the opposite view of some of his decisions, ranging from defending a law that would outlaw virtually all abortions. ing. The right side of the city is asking landlords to tell them they shouldn’t discriminate against tenants just because their rent is federally subsidized.

In a new opinion, she agreed with Mr. McGinley that allowing full hand counts would render detailed instructions for magnifying counts when results do not match machine counts unnecessary and pointless. Manual counting is intended to ensure that the tally machines are counting ballots accurately.

Cochise County Registrar David Stevens, a Republican, backed the count tally effort and recruited volunteers from both major political parties to do the tally before it was blocked, but Monday’s call for comment was forthcoming. did not return to

But Alexander Collodin, an attorney representing Cochise County on appeals, said he thinks the county will win in the Court of Appeal regardless of what Mr. Mays says now.

“All I can say is that overturning your predecessor is clearly a political move,” said Corrodin, a Republican member of the Scottsdale House of Representatives.

At any rate, Mays’ opinion — even the formal one in her role as Attorney General — is just that, he said. “At the end of the day, these AG opinions are not law, case law, or precedent,” Corodin said.

According to a lower court judge’s ruling, Arizona law limits early voting to 1% of the number cast or 5,000, whichever is less, and will not expand unless the number matches the machine tally. not allowed. For votes cast directly on Election Day, at least 2% of him in a constituency or 2% of his at random, whichever is greater.

Republicans, who control Congress, have passed a law allowing counties to extend manual count audits to 100% of the total votes cast. But its fate is uncertain after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs opposed Cochise County’s expansion plans last year when she was Arizona’s top electoral official and secretary of state.