PHOENIX — Rep. Raul Grijalva is calling for the Justice Department to investigate the placement of a Republican tracker in charge of elections in a southern Arizona county.
As part of a move that Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays is trying to block, the Cochise County Oversight Board recently appointed registrar David Stevens as the 2024 election director.
Two Republicans on the three-member board, Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, voted in favor of the move, while Democrat Anne English voted against it.
Grijalva, a Democrat, sent a letter Last week, he asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to ask the Justice Department to investigate the move and support Mays’ efforts.
“David Stevens has a history of supporting election denialism and has close ties to election denial candidates in Arizona,” Grijalva wrote. “Mr. Stevens promoted and supported an illegal proposal to manually count all midterm ballots in Cochise County, a proposal that was later blocked by a court.
“In addition, Stevens has a close relationship with Mark Finchem, the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Arizona Secretary of State, who refused the election.”
Stevens and Republican overseers had planned to count ballots entirely by hand for the November election, but they were blocked in court. The county also refused to certify the results of the 2022 election until a judge found it illegal.
“In my opinion, given the past actions of Mr. Stevens and the Republican majority on the Cochise County Oversight Board, broader empowerment of Mr. Stevens is dangerous and undermines confidence in the Cochise County election. There is fear,” Grijalva said. I have written.
“For these reasons, I am asking the Department of Justice to investigate and monitor the election process in Cochise County under Mr. Stevens’ control and to have Arizona’s Attorney General Mays take the necessary steps to protect voting rights and the integrity of the election.” provide valuable resources and encourage her to support her office.” ”
Mays filed a lawsuit on March 7, accusing the county of appointing Stevens as election director unlawful.
“This agreement is essentially an unconditional handover from the board to the Registrar and does not enable the two companies to work together to perform their statutory duties openly and transparently,” said Mays, a Democrat. lawmakers said in a statement. press release.
“Each county can properly enter into cooperative agreements with the Registrar to administer elections, but Cochise County’s agreement goes far beyond legal boundaries.”
Arizona’s longest-serving congressman, Grijalva, said he agreed with Mays’ assessment.
The county registrar is an elected role with responsibilities such as maintaining voter registration records, lobbying voter registration, mailing early ballots, and verifying signatures on ballots. Election officials are responsible for counting ballots.
Grijalva explained that managing elections involves setting up polling stations, hiring polling officials and counting ballots.
Stevens will replace Lisa Mara, who served as county elections director for five years and opposed a Republican effort to manually count last year’s midterm ballots.
