Bob Christie
Capitol Media Services
A judge on Tuesday denied a request from Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays to prevent the Cochise County Board of Supervisors from turning over its election administration to an elected county registrar.
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink denied Mays’ request for an injunction to block implementation of the February agreement. In the lawsuit, Mays alleges that the board illegally delegated oversight of the election to Recorder’s David Stevens.
However, the agreement signed by the board ensures that Mr. Fink has sufficient oversight to meet the requirements of the law, including regular reporting from Mr. Stevens to the board and the ability to reverse decisions deemed unfavorable. said to be obtained.
“If there is a problem with the registrar’s performance of his election duties, these provisions are safeguards the court believes are sufficient to ensure that the commission represents authority over the conduct of elections in Cochise County. be”.
Fink said.
The decision came after an hour-long court hearing in which Attorney General Josh Bender tried to persuade Fink that the county had illegally delegated its powers to Stevens. Timothy La Sota said the attorney general’s office was digging into the agreement to find faults that weren’t there.
“If you look at the state’s criticism of this agreement, it looks like it’s something that lawyers put together for their clients when they’re trying to figure out something about their clients that they don’t like,” said La Judge. said to “I don’t like how you write this, I don’t like how you write that”
La Sota said a county commission of two Republicans and one Democrat retains the power to review Stevens’ decision and replace him if necessary. .
These are important clarifications of the agreement that states have interpreted differently, Bender said in an interview after the hearing.
He argued that the judge’s decision was not a clear defeat by Mays. It was clear and crossed the line to claim that it was illegal.
“They can’t just run it like that after they’ve given their opinion to the judge,” Bender said.
“So I think it’s important. It means the board has the power to oversee Stevens’ election duties, and the judges seem to say so,” he said. We hope that the defendants will act in line with what they have said in court, so we will not have to appeal.”
The Attorney General’s lawsuit pointed to a series of problems in last year’s election in Cochise County, in which the board attempted a 100% hand count but was blocked by the court, and two Republican directors were ordered to refused to certify election results until do so.
Judge Fink, however, said these issues were irrelevant to his decision and had removed them from the record if the case had progressed.
In an interview after the attorney general filed the lawsuit in March, Stevens said the agreement did not give him the freedom to do what he wanted.
Instead, it says the board must approve his decision. And he said the contract was drafted by the county attorney’s office and made only two minor changes by the board before being approved.
Republican Stevens is a longtime friend of former Republican Congressman Mark Finchem, a prominent supporter of unsupported claims that the 2020 election in which President Joe Biden was elected was marred by fraud. is. Finkem lost his run for Secretary of State, Arizona’s chief election officer, in November.
Stevens said any notion that he might use his new role to influence the conduct or outcome of the election is false.
After Tuesday’s ruling, Vendor said the attorney general will continue to oversee election administration in Cochise County.
“We have to keep an eye on what’s going on there,” Bendall said. We will continue to monitor just in case.”
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Twitter: @AzChristieNews
