By Kiera Riley|| Arizona Capitol Times
The Arizona Supreme Court denied an emergency appeal on the case barring the Cochise County Board of Supervisors and the Cochise County Recorder’s full hand count of ballots.
After a judge blocked the board’s attempt at a full hand count of ballots on Monday, Recorder David Stevens moved forward with a hand count anyways, and his attorneys filed an appeal in the case.
The case will now proceed on a timeline consistent with the Court of Appeals.
The new pace of the case, combined with the Cochise County Democrats’ refusal to participate, essentially derails the County Recorder David Stevens’ plan to move forward with the hand count against the court order issued on Monday.
Cochise County paved somewhat of a pattern pushing for expanded or full hand counts of ballots, which are often embroiled in skepticism of tabulation machines.
The appeal, amid reported problems with printers and tabulation machines in Maricopa County and razor thin margins across contested races, shows the fixation on hand counts is far from over.
A Pima County judge blocked Cochise County’s bid for a full hand count on Monday.
Judge Casey McGinley wrote in the ruling that the audit of all ballots proposed by Crosby and Judd does not comply with “clearly stated Arizona law,” and the court found, “no evidence that electronic tabulation is inaccurate.”
The court ordered the county to stay within the stipulations in conducting hand counts.
