PHOENIX (AP) — Republican officials in a local Arizona county refused to prove the 2022 election on Monday The decision was quickly challenged in court by the state’s top election officials, even though there was no evidence that there was anything wrong with the count.

The denial of certification by Cochise County in southeastern Arizona comes amid pressure from prominent Republicans to reject results that show the Democrats won a leading election.

Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who narrowly won the gubernatorial election, called on a judge to order county officials to investigate the election, saying it was her duty under Arizona law. Lawyers representing a group of Cochise County voters and retirees filed a similar lawsuit Monday. This is the deadline for the county to approve an official ballot tally known as the canvas.

Two Republican county superintendents have postponed the canvas ballot until Friday when they want to hear again about concerns about accreditation of election officials, but election officials have repeatedly said the equipment is properly approved.

State elections commissioner Cori Rorick said in a letter last week that Mr. Hobbes was required by law to approve a statewide canvas by next week, and would have to be barred if the Cochise County ballot wasn’t made in time. wrote.

This threatens to flip winners from Republicans to Democrats in at least two close races (House seat and state school president).

Hobbs’ lawsuit asks Cochise County Superior Court to order the civil servants to certify by Thursday. Failure to prove it undermines the will of voters in the county and “seeds further confusion and doubt about the integrity of Arizona’s electoral system,” Hobbes’ attorney wrote.

“The oversight board had all the information it needed to prove this election, but it failed to fulfill its responsibilities to Cochise voters,” said Sophia Solis, a Hobbs spokeswoman. said in an email.

Arizona law requires county officials to approve election canvases, and several county attorneys say they could face criminal charges for failure of Republican supervisors to meet their obligations. I warned you.

Election results are generally recognized without problems in national jurisdictions. That was not the case in Arizona, which has been the focus of efforts by former President Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn the 2020 election and spread false narratives of fraud.

Officials in northeastern Pennsylvania counties where paper shortages caused election day voting problems were at a standstill Monday Effectively prevents certification of results as to whether official vote tallies are reported to the state.

Arizona has long been a stronghold of the Republican Party, but this month Democrats won most of the high-profile election campaigns over Republicans who actively promoted Trump’s 2020 election lies. Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and secretary of state candidate Mark Finkem, who lost to Hobbes, refuse to concede defeat.

They blame Republican election officials in Maricopa County, the largest county in the state, including Metro Phoenix, for problems with some ballot printers. Maricopa County officials said everyone had a chance to vote and all legal votes were tallied.

Navajo County, a local Republican-leaning county, and Coconino County, a staunch Democratic supporter, voted to certify on Monday. In conservative Mojave and Yavapai counties, supervisors voted to investigate the results despite concerns themselves and dozens of speakers urging them not to. .

“To delay this vote again will only prolong the pain without really changing anything,” said Republican Mojave County Superintendent Hildy Angius.County postponed certification ballot to register protest last week Opposes Maricopa County Voting Issues.

In Cochise County, a Republican overseer abandoned a plan to count all ballots by hand, which a court said was illegal, but last week before the secretary of state approved the election results. I demanded proof that the ticket counter was legally certified. On Monday, they said they wanted to hear about those concerns again.

There are two companies accredited by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to test and certify voting equipment, such as the electronic tally machines used to read and count ballots in Arizona.

A conspiracy theory surrounding this process surfaced in early 2021 and focused on what appeared to be an old certification certificate of a company posted online. Federal officials investigated and reported that administrative errors prevented the agency from reissuing the renewed certificate because the company remained in good standing and underwent audits in 2018 and early 2021. .

Officials also pointed out that federal law stipulates that the only way a testing company can lose certification is for the board to revoke it, but that didn’t happen.

Lake noted that Maricopa County had a problem on Election Day. There, printers at some vote centers produced ballots with markings too light for on-site counters to read. Lake says the line receded in the confusion, which may have dissuaded some of her supporters from voting.

She filed a public records lawsuit last week, demanding the county produce documents clarifying the matter before she votes to prove the election on Monday. I asked for clarification before.

The county said on Sunday that no one had been blocked from voting and 85% of vote centers had not queued for more than 45 minutes. Most vote centers with long lines had other vote centers nearby with shorter wait times, county officials said.

In response, prominent Republicans, including leader Kerry Ward, told supporters on Twitter not to put their ballots in secure boxes so they would be tallied later by the more robust machinery at the county elections headquarters. He accused him of causing confusion.

According to the county, just under 17,000 ballots were put into these secure boxes on Election Day and they were all counted. Officials also said the problem was dispersed throughout the county, denying Lake’s claim that it was concentrated in Republican areas. Of the 1.56 million votes cast, only 16% were cast in person on Election Day.

Maricopa County supervisors spent hours listening to dozens of people raving about the election. Some have called for the county to hold the ballot, but there is no state law that allows it. The supervisors unanimously approved the canvas.

“This was not a perfect election,” said Republican Oversight Board Chairman Bill Gates. “But I felt safe and secure. The votes were counted correctly.”

Meanwhile, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner said he would decide in the next few days whether to allow Republican candidate Abraham Hamade to challenge the election for Arizona Attorney General.

Warner, who was appointed to the court by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2007, spoke at a hearing Monday afternoon. Hamade said earlier this month that along with all of Arizona’s county registrars and current governor-elect, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, his opponent Democrat Chris, who holds a 510-vote lead in the race, was elected. A lawsuit was filed against Mays.

The lawsuit, which alleges errors and inaccuracies at some vote centers, seeks to appoint Mr. Hamade as attorney general. Mayes’ attorneys say the lawsuit is premature.

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Contributed by Associated Press writers Terry Tan and Anita Snow (Phoenix) and Christina A. Cassidy (Atlanta).

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Follow AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.