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Rural Arizona county delays certifying midterm results as election disputes persist



CNN

Arizona County local officials delayed certification for the November midterm elections on Monday, missing legal deadlines, The Arizona state secretary filed a lawsuit on the grounds that the county did not approve the results.

In a 2-1 vote on Monday morning, the Republicans won the majority. Cochise County Board of Supervisors Defers Accreditation Until Friday, citing concerns about voting machines. With Monday being the deadline for all 15 of his Arizona counties to prove their results, Cochise’s actions jeopardize the votes of some 47,000 county residents and disrupt the election if those votes are not counted. can result in

In a lawsuit filed by the office of Arizona governor-elect Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, officials said failing to prove election results violated state law and would “potentially disenfranchise” voters in the county. ” said it was possible.

CNN has reached out to the supervisor for comment.

Kari Lake slams election officials.Hear from Arizona County election officials

Conflicts between Cochise County officials and Arizona’s secretary of state have led to many candidates sympathizing with former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, claiming that misinformation about the 2022 election has been spread in parts of the country. It shows that it continues to spark controversy regarding the results of the year. Defeated in November.

A crowd of grassroots activists turned up at a special meeting of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to loudly protest the county’s election administration procedures during the public comment portion of the meeting after printer problems occurred at polling stations on Election Day. One-third of county polling places. In a new letter to the state attorney general’s office seeking an explanation of the matter, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said, “No voters were disenfranchised because of the difficulties the county experienced with some printers. ‘ said.

Controversy over the results erupted elsewhere.

Pennsylvania also faces Monday’s deadline for counties to prove their general election votes, and local officials face an onslaught of petitions demanding recounts.And Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania. officials were at a standstill Monday over whether to prove the results. multiple media coverageLocal election officials did not respond to inquiries from CNN on Monday afternoon.

A Pennsylvania State Department official said in a statement to CNN that it reached out to officials in Luzerne “to inquire about the Board’s decision and their intended next steps.”

On election day, a court order extended in-person voting due to a paper shortage in Lucerne county.

Arizona, another key battleground state, has long been a cauldron of election intrigue. Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Kari Lake Republican secretary of state Mark Finkem, who pushed Trump’s lies about 2020, refuses to acknowledge their race as he continues to cast doubt on this year’s election results.

dana bash kali lake sotu sum vpx

‘Where’s the evidence?’: Bash refutes Kari Lake’s 2020 election claims

Lake’s campaign filed a lawsuit last week asking Maricopa County’s elections department for more information, comparing the number of voters who checked in at polling places to the number of ballots. And Arizona’s Republican Attorney General candidate Abe Hamday – who, like Lake and Finkem, has Trump’s backing – filed a lawsuit in state superior court in Maricopa County last week. challenge the election results It is based on what the lawsuit describes as an error in election administration.

Hamade leads Democrat Chris Mays by 510 votes, and the race is on for a recount. However, the lawsuit asks the court to issue an injunction barring the Arizona Secretary of State from recognizing Mays as the winner, and asks the court to declare Hamade as the winner. Recounts cannot begin until state ballots are approved.

Alex Gulotta, Arizona director of All Voting is Local, said the drama around vote authentication and refusal to withdraw due to losing a candidate is the “election denial denial” that has been building in Arizona since the 2020 election. said to be part of the infrastructure.

“These people are trying to keep looking for fertile ground to undermine our election. They’re not going to give up,” Grotta said. “There were a lot of people who denied the election, and many of them didn’t win.”

But their refusal to concede was “inevitable in Arizona, at least in this cycle, given the candidates. These are not good losers,” he added. I said I would be the loser.”

In Cochise County, Republican officials on the county board of supervisors called for the delay, citing concerns about voting machines.

Democratic Speaker Anne English argued that there was “no reason to delay.”

However, Republican Commissioners Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd voted to delay approval of the results, citing allegations that the machine had not been properly authenticated. Monday’s action was the second time a Republican-dominated committee delayed approval. And he showed the board’s latest effort by Republicans to register disapproval of the ballot counting machine. Earlier this month, they attempted to launch a broad handcount audit of interim results, tackling Cochise election officials and county attorneys, warning them that Gambit could violate the law.

State election officials said concerns raised by the Republican majority about vote-counting machines were rooted in debunked conspiracy theories.

State elections administrator Cori Rorick confirmed in writing that the voting machines had been tested and certified — Hobbes reiterated in Monday’s lawsuit. I am asking you to compel me to prove

An initial deadline of December 5 was set for statewide certification. In the lawsuit, Hobbes’ attorney said state law allows for a slight delay if her office has not received county results, but no later than December 8 or 30 days after the election.

“Without this court intervention, and not including the Cochise County ballot, the Commissioner has no choice but to complete the statewide canvas by December 8,” her attorney added.

If votes from this Republican homeland don’t somehow count, there will be two races to run: the state superintendent’s election and the Congressional election, in which Republican Juan Ciscomani is already predicted as the winner by CNN and other news outlets. It is possible that the Democratic Party will overturn.

so recent opinion articles Published in the Republic of Arizona, two former Maricopa County election officials said the court would likely step in and force Cochise to prove his results.

But Republican Helen Purcell, a former Maricopa County Record Keeper, and Tammy Patrick, a Democrat and former federal compliance officer for the county, cautioned: Middle term. ”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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