Washington DC — Earlier this month, Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould (R) filed a lawsuit in his personal capacity challenging Arizona's ban on hand counting. Now, a nonprofit group in Arizona is stepping in to defend voting machines and prohibit fraudulent counties from attempting to tally all election results by hand.

In November 2023, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors scheduled a vote to decide whether to hand count all ballots for the 2024 election. On November 19, 2023, Attorney General Chris Mays (D) sent a letter to the Mohave County Board of Supervisors informing them that counting ballots by hand violates Arizona law.board after all They voted 3-2 to not count the ballots by hand. Now, one of the supervisors claims Mays intimidated the board and ultimately changed the vote.

On January 13, Gould told Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays (D) that a letter Mays sent to the Mohave County Commission “influenced the voting process and the final vote” and violated Arizona law. and filed a lawsuit alleging that the plaintiff was “intimidated” by the defendant. The plaintiffs argue that this practice violates Arizona law and are asking the court to declare that counting ballots with voting machines rather than by hand is optional, not mandatory. .

Gould also noted that the court's findings in a separate Cochise County case apply only to conducting a complete hand count audit (voting by hand after voting machines have cast votes) and therefore do not apply to the conduct of elections. They are asking the court to order. Full hand count (initial count is done without tabulation tools).

Today, the Arizona Alliance of Retired Americans, a nonprofit organization of approximately 50,000 retirees made up of union and community organization activists from Arizona counties, filed a motion to intervene. The group claims it is interested in “ensuring that members' ballots are protected by rigorous standards that ensure the accuracy, security, and privacy of electronic vote counting.” Previously, the group filed a lawsuit to prevent Cochise County from conducting a full census.

Read the motion to intervene here.

Read the complaint here.

Read more about the lawsuit here.