The Daily Agenda: Cochise County circus continues
That's an insult to circuses ... Lawsuit bonanza well underway ... And the AZGOP suddenly loves the First Amendment.
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Cochise County invited yet another lawsuit on Monday when the county’s two Republican supervisors refused to certify the county’s election results by yesterday’s deadline.
By the end of the day, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office had filed a lawsuit, as had the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans. The courts will intervene to force the county to conduct its non-discretionary duty.
The county declared it had simply “delayed” its certification until Friday, when Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd say they want to hear more about questions over certification of tabulation machines. Judd said last week she was ready to certify, according to the Republic, but apparently changed her mind.
Those questions have already been answered: The Secretary of State’s Office detailed the machine certification, complete with a letter from the Election Assistance Commission, which accredits the labs that then certify the machines, verifying the lab is certified.
“The Board of Supervisors had all of the information they needed to certify this election and failed to uphold their responsibility for Cochise voters,” the Secretary of State’s Office said in a statement. “The Secretary will use all available legal remedies to compel compliance with Arizona law and protect voters’ right to have their votes counted.”
The most recent delay follows a series of Cochise follies as the county tried to conduct a full hand count, which was then deemed illegal. And elections aren’t the only area where the two supervisors lean into right-wing conspiracies du jour. They also refused a pandemic grant in January, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tim Steller notes.
“When you hear Cochise County Supervisor Peggy Judd say she’s been doing her own research, it’s time to worry,” Steller writes.
Mohave County also briefly delayed its certification in Monday morning, but then came back later in the day and signed off on its results. Supervisors acknowledged that they didn’t really have a legal option not to. Yavapai County also certified its results on Monday, leaving Cochise County supervisors standing alone.
It’s not only illegal to refuse to certify an election — it actually disenfranchises a county’s voters and potentially throws an election to a candidate who didn’t win the state, former Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell and Tammy Patrick, a former longtime election official in the county, write in the Republic. A red county refusing to certify could hand a win to Democrats who didn’t actually win, like Superintendent Kathy Hoffman and CD6 candidate Kirsten Engel. And a canvass is also required before legal challenges to the election results can commence.
In Maricopa County, the supervisors faced hours of vitriol from people who wanted a “revote,” some of whom lobbed insults and threats at those who run elections in the county. Many of those who screamed the loudest left the meeting before the county gave a detailed presentation on erroneous claims about the election and what went wrong on Election Day.
Maricopa County unanimously certified its results, with Chairman Bill Gates acknowledging the election wasn’t perfect. In the audience, a woman yelled “nullify” as the vote occurred.
As we’ve said before, we expect the county to conduct a thorough analysis into what happened with printers that caused delays and frustrations in voting, affecting those who cast ballots on Election Day. Those problems were serious, and the county should work to ensure they transparently explain what happened and what they will do to prevent such problems in the future.
For now, the certification problem may have to be resolved by the courts forcing county officials to do their jobs. The undercurrent of delaying certification points to a much larger, long-running, difficult to resolve problem in Arizona politics.
If at first you don’t succeed, just refile: Republican AG candidate Abe Hamadeh got his day in court yesterday, and the judge warned he may dismiss the lawsuit — not because it’s bunk, but because it came too early. Lawsuits challenging election results usually cannot be filed until after the state certifies the election. But Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner told both sides to prepare to submit legal briefs next week, possibly under a re-filed lawsuit if he dismisses this one. And as Capitol scribe Howard Fischer notes, the whole protracted legal battle and recount could mean Attorney General Mark Brnovich gets to extend his stay in office until it’s all settled.
Please not a hearing: Maricopa County told Arizona Sen. Kelly Townsend that her subpoena seeking a bunch of election information didn’t “meet the legal requirements of an enforceable legislative subpoena” in part because it wasn’t tied to a legislative hearing. The county said it would provide responses to some of what she asked for, the Republic’s Ray Stern details. Meanwhile, Townsend is asking Senate President Karen Fann to let her hold a hearing next week so she can enforce the subpoena, the Yellow Sheet Report reports.
So many lawsuits, so little time: Another trio of election lawsuits hit the courts yesterday, the AZ Law blog reports. First, the Kari Lake lawsuit over public records was officially filed. Then, failed Maricopa County supervisor candidate Gail Golec filed a suit to stop the county from certifying the election, which was denied because you can’t sue until after the canvass is signed. And finally, attorney Tim LaSota filed a suit in that wild write-in race for the LD22 Senate seat alleging that some of the votes for winning candidate Eva Diaz should not have counted because voters also cast their votes for Diego Espinoza, who dropped out of the race too late to be removed from the ballot. AZ Law has the filings. Also in AZ Law, a U.S. District Court judge sided with Maricopa County in barring Gateway Pundit “reporter” Jordan Conradson from receiving a county press badge. The judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order barring the county from barring him.
Election denialism sells: Restoration Action, a dark money nonprofit funded by Republican megadonor and billionaire Dick Uihlein, has been raising and spending an awful lot of money to back election deniers in Arizona, the Daily Beast’s Roger Solllenberger writes, citing a previously unreleased IRS document. It recently hired Arizona election denier Gina Swobada, a vice-chair of the AZGOP and the election integrity coordinator for Kari Lake’s campaign, as executive director of one of its offshoots for $108,000.
Pima County’s death trap: The Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington looks into at least 28 deaths in Pima County’s jail since 2020 as families and advocates demand accountability and reform in what they call “Pima County’s death trap.”
“The overwhelming majority of jails in the United States don’t have any deaths in a given year, or, at most, one or two. With an average annual death rate of nearly 10 a year, critics say there is something seriously wrong at the Pima County jail,” Washington writes.
The students vs. the university: In the wake of the murder of professor Thomas Meixner and doxxing and harassment against opinion writer Olivia Krupp, the Arizona Daily Wildcat’s opinion page takes the University of Arizona to task for continuing to “choose inaction over response” when it comes to violence on campus.
Hacienda was the tip of the iceberg: Longtime Valley journalist Amy Silverman is diving into a five-part series with KJZZ and the Arizona Daily Star about the abuse, neglect and risks that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities face. The investigative series was sparked by the rape of an incapacitated woman at Hacienda HealthCare in 2018, which is the topic of the first part of the series.
“Whether in an institution charged with providing constant oversight or out in the world, bad things are happening to some of the state's most vulnerable residents,” Silverman writes.
New old judges just dropped: The Cochise County Superior Court is taking advantage of a new rule allowing it to hire retired judges to handle certain cases, the Sierra Vista Herald reports. Their salaries come from a grant, and the three new hires in Cochise County are working settlement conferences, freeing up the county’s other six judges.
When being called “The New Sinema” is not a compliment: Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego is under fire from Democrats and police reform advocates after she backed two “pro-public safety” candidates in November’s election, including one who challenged Councilman Carlos Garcia, a prominent voice for police accountability, the Republic’s Taylor Seely reports. Both races are heading to runoffs in March.
Something to warm Fred’s heart: Fred DuVal, the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee who ran against Doug Ducey (who Ducey later appointed to the Arizona Board of Regents) gushes about the YMCA Youth and Government program that teaches youngsters about policymaking and debate every December as they come down to the state Capitol and role-play lawmaking. DuVal is among the program’s many graduates, and he writes in the Republic that the program, which will convene this weekend, “makes me feel good about the future and is exactly the antidote I need at the end of the campaign season.”
During Maricopa County’s public hearing before its certification vote on Monday, speakers were limited to two minutes of commentary. It’s a normal practice for basically all government meetings, but to the Arizona Republican Party, it’s apparently a “violation of our First Amendment right.”
The AZGOP has apparently never attended a committee hearing at the Capitol, where Republican committee chairs strictly limit public comment on a routine basis, a practice we’ve railed against for years.
Will there be ARREST Warrants for Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby?
https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/16/01010.htm
16-1010.
Refusal by election officer to perform duty; violation of election law; classification
A person charged with performance of any duty under any law relating to elections who knowingly refuses to perform such duty, or who, in his official capacity, knowingly acts in violation of any provision of such law, is guilty of a class 6 felony unless a different punishment for such act or omission is prescribed by law.