“I have too much at stake by not coming here and telling the truth,” Wasin told them.

However, the murmurs in the room suggested that not everyone believed his words.

As he explained how his company strives to ensure accurate and secure voting, some attendees shook their heads or whispered to their neighbors. “We have to believe that our vote is being counted,” said Danny Bergine, one of the participants. He was wearing a black shirt that read “HELL NO, JOE” and had a picture of a rifle on it. “And no one trusts machines,” he continued.

More than a year after the midterm elections and the unrest that drew national attention, distrust persists in conservative Cochise County. It was here that Republican watchdogs Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd spoke out in the wake of Republican claims that the gubernatorial election was stolen. Try counting all the ballots by handand block authentication of county votes.Now, Crosby and Judd. Serious crime pending after a state grand jury found they conspired to interfere with the election.

County officials are trying to restore trust and educate the public about how elections are conducted. Democrats are fielding candidates for all three supervisory seats in an effort to restore “responsible county government.” And Judd said in an interview that he has changed his mind about how much influence he can have on election issues as supervisor.

“This is a national issue,” she said. “I settled on it.”

It is difficult to bring about change in a county that is so influenced by outside voices. Many appear to be determined about the fairness of the election, or are concerned about other issues, such as road work that needs to be done. Their water resources are decreasing. Additionally, the number of illegal border crossings this year is more than double that of last year, overwhelming local resources in communities closest to the border.

Theresa Walsh, a Democrat who is challenging Mr. Crosby in the upcoming election, said these are the issues people want to talk about during the campaign.

“I was going around and talking to people and they were like, 'Who is Tom Crosby?'” Walsh said. “What is a supervisor?”

Cochise County, located in the southeast corner of Arizona a few hours from Phoenix, is larger in square miles than the state of Connecticut but has only 125,000 residents. More than half live in small cities and towns scattered across the rugged desert and mountain range, far from Sierra Vista's population centers. Reaching these towns requires going off the main roads, sometimes over an hour.

Long before Wasin came to town, Cochise County residents began hearing from other sources that the election was rigged, but it was the voting machines that made it possible.

Initially, it was former President Donald Trump and unproven claims of vote switching in the 2020 election. Then came gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, whose unproven claims of irregularities and irregularities in Maricopa County's midterm elections have sparked growing disdain for the state's most populous county. It resonated with voters.

“All of a sudden, this bloom appeared,” said Sierra Vista resident Bob Karp, gesturing in a way that suggested an explosion.

Crowds gathered at the 2022 county supervisors meeting to pressure them not to certify the election. After two delays, the court compulsory supervisor Vote yes.

So the county manager called on recently retired city employee Tim Mattix to come back and take over the job. He did so, but is then kept face down.

At last week's meeting, he was in the back. These voting machine demonstrations were partially his idea, but he did not speak out against them. When it came time to introduce the notable people in the room, the county administrator introduced Stevens and others, but not Mattix.

After the machine demonstration, attendees asked several questions about how people vote in person in the county. While most counties in Arizona use hand-marked paper ballots at polling places, in Cochise County voters make their choices using touch-screen machines. These machines print ballots so voters can confirm their choice before casting their vote to another machine.

Attendees questioned the barcodes on the ballots. The barcode encodes the voter's selection for the counting machine to read. We also had some questions about why the voter check-in system has a secure Wi-Fi connection and how the data is encrypted. Throughout the discussion, Wasin seemed intent on convincing the audience that he could be trusted.

“If I had any idea that ES&S was doing something wrong with security, I would call the attorney general myself,” he said at one point. Tricia Gerrodet of Sierra Vista said she was glad to hear about ES&S' security features. machine. She likes that voters can see a printed ballot showing their choices.

County spokeswoman Jane Montgomery said the county received positive feedback from people who said they did not fully understand the layers of security included in the system. But he also said county officials recognize there are “still differing opinions” about using machines to tabulate votes.

Part of the question is whether it will reach voters.

The next day, in Tombstone, a tourist town about a 30-minute drive from Sierra Vista on a two-lane highway, Trump Store manager Robert Scott said he had never heard of the meeting. Even if he had, he might not have gone. He is busy juggling his two jobs, running the store and being a manager at another location.

Despite the failure of court challenges to those claims, he said Trump's vote-switching claims are true and that Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs won Arizona elections in 2020 and 2022. He said he was confident it had been fixed.

Although he lives in Tombstone, he doesn't pay much attention to local politics and said he was unaware that Crosby and Judd had been indicted.

“That seems ridiculous,” he said.

But the main local concern is “that road between St. David and Benson,” he said.

“This bridge over there is down to one lane,” he said. “It's been like that for over a year. They haven't done anything for months.”

When Walsh talks to voters, she says, they talk about water conservation, border security and taxes. When she mentions elections, she asks how much litigation related to midterm elections is costing county taxpayers.The judge ordered the county to pay $89,000 in attorney fees and court costs For example, against a party filing a lawsuit seeking a complete suspension of hand counting; $36,000 for the case Regarding the Supervisor's Refusal to Certify an Election.

Democrats, who only make up about 24% of the voting population here, are backing candidates for all three county supervisor positions for the first time in more than a decade. They ousted Crosby in a district where Mr. Walsh, a retired Army colonel, is 19% registered as a Democrat and retained the seat currently held by Anne English, a Democrat who is not running for reelection in the district. I hope it can be done. Democrats are about 34%. Judd also doesn't run. They are also pinning their hopes on Democratic candidate Ann Kahl, who is challenging Stevens in the recorder race.

Mr. Karp, who manages Mr. Walsh's campaign, said that if Mr. Walsh and Mr. Kahl win, it will greatly contribute to community unity.

“Then this distrust, confusion and lack of respect for people with different viewpoints will end,” he said.

Mr. Judd resigned from his position as supervisory board chairman this week, citing family health issues, and sided with Mr. English, a Democrat, to replace him. He said he doesn't trust Crosby to run the meeting because he has been using “abusive language” and being disrespectful to the county attorney with whom he disagrees, potentially violating the Open Meetings Act. Stated.

“We need to make sure we move the county forward,” she said. “Our poor lawyer does not deserve to be publicly criticized for doing his job.”

Crosby did not respond to requests for comment. His and Judd's trial is scheduled for May, two months before voting begins in the state's Aug. 6 primary election.

Meanwhile, Walsh isn't the only one who wants Crosby's spot. Republican Clint Briseno is challenging him in the primary. Briseno said he had been planning to run for superintendent even before the campaign issue began. But after watching everything unfold, especially the treatment of Mara, he said he believed the county “could do better.”

As for voting machines, he said the technology is a boon for the county. Counting by hand isn't accurate, he says.

Even if Cochise can convince residents to keep the machines, it's just the beginning.

As one of the meetings ended, a woman in a mint suit started yelling from the back of the room. The real problem with the election, she said, is that non-citizens on the voter rolls appear to be coming across the border and insinuating it. President Trump's latest claims That Democrats are allowing immigrants to cross the border so they can vote. That's the essence of fraud, she said.

“Arizona alone could beat them all.”