The Cochise County Board of Supervisors’ move comes despite repeated warnings from the Cochise County attorney, as well as Hobbs’ office and the state Legislative Council that such a practice is illegal.
By Mary Jo Pitzl || Arizona Republic
Election drama in a rural Arizona county took another turn Friday, the most recent twist in five days in a dispute over ballot counting in next month’s election.
Cochise County officials now intend to hand count all ballots cast in the Nov. 8 election, officials said Friday. Such a hand count is illegal under Arizona law, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has said, and Friday’s events have revived a dispute that could lead to a lawsuit.
County officials say they want to assuage voter distrust in elections by manually counting the ballots to match against the tally done by tabulation machines. But critics say it’s a ploy to create doubt about the returns, creating a cudgel for election losers to use to challenge election results.
Earlier this week, under pressure from the secretary of state, the county appeared on track to only hand count ballots cast at vote centers on Election Day. That would amount to about one-fourth of all ballots, as early voting is the dominant method used by Cochise County residents. In 2020, 61,000 people cast ballots in the general election.
But in a meeting to review how a hand count would proceed, it was clear the scope is to tally every single ballot, although they would limit the review to four races on the ballot, chosen at random.
The Cochise County Board of Supervisors’ move comes despite repeated warnings from the Cochise County attorney, as well as Hobbs’ office and the state Legislative Council that such a practice is illegal.
