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☆ Arizona Officials Charged With Conspiring to Delay Election Results
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Charles Homans | More About Charles Homans | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two Republican county supervisors in Arizona were indicted Wednesday on felony charges related to their attempts to delay the certification of 2022 election results. Last year, Ms. Judd and Mr. Crosby sought to order a hand count of the ballots that had been cast in Cochise, a heavily Republican rural county, citing conspiracy theories that had been raised by local right-wing activists. When a judge ruled against them, they voted to delay certification of the election before eventually relenting under pressure of a court order. The episode was closely watched by democracy advocates and election law experts, who saw in the supervisors’ machinations a worrying precedent. As Donald J. Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him became widely accepted in the Republican Party, local Republican officials in several closely contested states used suspicion of the election system on the right to justify delaying the certification of 2022 election results.

Persons: Kris Mayes, Peggy Judd, Tom Crosby, Judd, Crosby, Donald J Organizations: Republican, Republican Party Locations: Arizona, Cochise County, Cochise

KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) — For the second time in nearly four months, officials in a northwestern Arizona county narrowly rejected a proposal to hand count all ballots in the 2024 election cycle rather than using electronic tabulating equipment. County election officials had said it would take 245 new workers and $1.1 million to count all ballots by hand. The Mohave County Republican Party said it had more than 300 volunteers willing to hand count ballots free of charge and Scottsdale attorney Bryan Blehm pledged to represent Mohave County in any related lawsuit. Ryan Esplin, a deputy county attorney who advises the board supervisors, told them no law specifically authorizes the proposed hand count. Prior to the 2022 general election, rural Cochise County in southeast Arizona pursued a hand count before it was stopped by a judge.

Persons: Kris Mayes, Travis Lingenfelter, Sen, Sonny Borrelli, Bryan Blehm, ”, Blehm, Kari Lake’s, Katie Hobbs, Borrelli, Ryan Esplin, I’m, I’ve, ” Esplin Organizations: Democratic, Republican, Mohave County Republican Party, Gov Locations: KINGMAN, Ariz, Arizona, Mohave County, Mohave, Lake Havasu City, Scottsdale, Cochise County, Nye County , Nevada

☆ Opinion | Election Denial Isn’t Over — It’s Often Just Local
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Camille Squires | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Every little bit of friction that’s added to the election process makes it that much harder for it to function. Which means these obscure election boards aren’t where denialism goes to die; it’s where it takes root and starts to grow. Just last month, North Carolina state election officials voted to remove two local election officials. The officials questioned state election practices and a 2018 federal court decision striking down strict voter ID requirements North Carolina had in place at the time. The incident is just the latest in a string of examples of the ways that election deniers’ conspiratorial distrust of elections continues to affect state and local elections.

☆ FBI to search ex-U.S. VP Pence's home, office for classified records
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence tours the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise County south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, U.S., June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Rebecca NobleWASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The FBI is soon expected to search former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's Indiana home and Washington, D.C., office for classified material, U.S. media reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. CNN reported Pence's Washington office was also expected to be searched. CNN, citing a source, reported that Pence's team does not believe there are classified records at either his home or his office. FBI agents searched Biden's Delaware beach house on Wednesday, but no classified documents were found, the president's attorney said.

After a two-week standoff between protesters and construction crews building a border wall made of shipping containers, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Arizona, accusing it of trespassing on federal land. "Arizona has unlawfully and without authority failed to remove the shipping containers from lands owned by the United States or over which the United States holds easements, thereby damaging the United States," the complaint reads. In August, Ducey issued an executive order directing the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to fill gaps in the existing border wall in Yuma County using shipping containers. Important waterways are being damaged or altered by the placement of shipping containers on land that serves as important habitats and crossings, including for endangered species, he said. "Under the Clean Water Act, they have created a dam with those shipping containers and it just looks like a junkyard now."

☆ Border barrier of shipping containers snakes across Arizona wilderness
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Liliana Salgado | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz., Dec 8 (Reuters) - A long, thin line stretches across the dusty Arizona landscape. It is a border barrier - but not the customary wall or fence. This is made up entirely of shipping containers stacked on top of each other. Border communities had been overwhelmed, he argued, saying the double-stacked containers would reach 22 feet (6.7 m) high. What we're here to do is enjoy our public lands in a strategic way that hinders the placement of further shipping containers," said Eamon Harrity, wildlife project manager at Sky Island Alliance.

☆ Holdout Arizona County Certifies Midterms Results After Court Order
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Laura Kusisto | Eliza Collins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Cochise County, Ariz., elections officials voted Thursday to certify the results of the midterm elections following a court order, ending a gambit that had left the fate of tens of thousands of votes in the state uncertain. The county’s three-member board of supervisors voted 2-0 in favor of certification, shortly after an Arizona judge ordered them to certify the results immediately. One Republican member of the board didn’t participate in the vote.

☆ Arizona county that balked at certifying election results finalizes tally after court order
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Zoë Richards | Zoë Richards Is The Evening Politics Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A Republican-led county in Arizona that flouted a statutory deadline for election certification ended up certifying its results Thursday shortly after a judge ordered officials there to take action. Officials in Cochise County voted 2-0 to accept the results of the Nov. 8 election, enabling statewide certification to move forward Monday. Ann English, the sole Democrat on the three-member Board of Supervisors, and Vice Chair Peggy Judd, a Republican, voted to approve the election results. Hobbs lauded Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley's order compelling the county to canvass its results. Voters in Cochise County largely favored Lake, a prominent election denier who has refused to concede.

☆ Judge forces GOP officials in Arizona's Cochise County to certify midterm results, ending a high-stakes confrontation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Officials in Cochise County, Arizona, voted 2-0 to accept the results of the midterms on Thursday. Their vote came shortly after a judge ordered them to certify the vote. Two officials on the three-member board signed off on the vote, while the third was not present. McGinley then ordered the board to sign off on the vote by that afternoon. It was suggested that Cochise County's refusal to certify its results could cost Republicans a seat in the US House of Representatives.

☆ Arizona county certifies midterm election vote after court order
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Ned Parker | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Dec 1 (Reuters) - A conservative, rural Arizona county that had defied a state deadline to certify its Nov. 8 midterm election results relented on Thursday after a judge said state law required the approval. Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley ruled at a hearing on Thursday that the Cochise County board of supervisors did not have the right to block certification. “The board of supervisors has a nondiscretionary duty to canvas the returns,” McGinley said during the livestreamed hearing, citing Arizona law. Arizona law requires counties to certify election results by Nov. 28, ahead of the state's certification on Dec. 5. Soon after the court hearing on Thursday, the board approved the election results.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs sued a Republican-controlled county Monday after it refused to certify its election results by the state's statutory deadline. The lawsuit, filed in Arizona Superior Court, aims to compel the Cochise County Board of Supervisors to certify the county's results from the Nov. 8 election. Officials in Cochise, one of 15 counties in the state, voted earlier in the day against certifying its election results. Under state law, Arizona is supposed to certify its results by Dec. 8 — with or without certification from all of the counties. Cochise County is the only county in the state that refused to certify its results.

☆ In Arizona, election deniers refuse to back down
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Ned Parker | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Republican candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters protest outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center as vote counting continues inside, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., November 12, 2022. The defeat of Lake and other election deniers was seen as a powerful rebuke of candidates who echoed Trump’s myths of a stolen election. Republican activists urged voters not to use the secure box on Election Day, according to Maricopa County officials. Maricopa County on Sunday released a report detailing voter numbers by location on Election Day and was scheduled to certify election results on Monday. DELAYS IN CERTIFICATIONElsewhere in Arizona, two conservative counties, Mohave and Cochise, do not plan to certify election results until Monday, the final day to formally do so, following pressure by election deniers.

☆ Republicans in one Arizona county refuse to certify election results
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Ned Parker | Linda So | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

-Republican officials who have embraced voter fraud theories resisted certifying the midterm election results in one Arizona county on Monday, defying a state deadline and setting the stage for a legal battle. REUTERS/Jim UrquhartoIn Cochise County, a conservative stronghold in southeastern Arizona, the two Republican members of the three-person board of supervisors voted to postpone certifying the county’s election results. On Monday, the Mohave board ultimately certified its election results but also criticized Maricopa’s performance. Arizona law requires counties to certify election results by Nov. 28, ahead of the state’s certification on Dec. 5. “In the last year, it’s become an unprecedented dereliction of duty for county officials to violate their oaths of office and refuse to certify election results, citing ‘gut feelings’ or alleged problems in jurisdictions other than their own,” Becker said.

☆ Arizona County Postpones Certifying Election Results, Setting Up Legal Fight
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Eliza Collins | Alicia A. Caldwell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Republican county officials in one Arizona county pushed back certification of the state’s election results that saw a slate of Trump-backed candidates fall in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, setting up a likely legal fight with the state’s secretary of state. Cochise County voted Monday to ignore the state’s deadline and delay its certification of the midterm election results. Secretary of State Kate Hobbs , a Democrat who won the gubernatorial race against Republican Kari Lake , is expected to file a lawsuit against any county that doesn’t certify, further injecting uncertainty into the state’s ability to move on from Election Day.

☆ GOP election officials in two Arizona counties are delaying certifying their votes on the basis of unproven voting machine claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Election officials in two Arizona counties are delaying certifying the midterm election results. The officials are citing unproven claims about voting machines in Maricopa County. The decision was made in protest against what some Republicans claim are irregularities in the midterm vote in Maricopa County, the state's largest county. Voting machines have long been the subject of far-right conspiracy theories, especially following Donald Trump's 2020 presidential election defeat, though no claims have been proven. On November 2o it was reported that Arizona Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich had demanded that county officials provide a report on voting machine issues during the midterms.

☆ Arizona man killed, nephew injured in 'unprovoked' shooting at RV dealer, police say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Minyvonne Burke Is A Senior Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A 47-year-old man was killed and his 18-year-old nephew was injured in what authorities said was an "unprovoked" shooting at an Arizona RV dealer. The shooting happened around 5:15 p.m. Monday at Desert RV in Whetstone, about 65 miles southeast of Tucson. Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said Hansberry walked into the business armed with an AR-15 rifle and shot several employees. Desert RV in Whetstone, Ariz. GoogleRobert Lizarraga, of Sierra Vista, died at the scene. Both worked at Desert RV.

The lawsuits, filed in states with key races, mark the tail-end of a months-long legal push by Democrats and Republicans to define the rules for voting in Tuesday's election. Cobb County has been overnighting ballots to affected voters and estimated on Monday that 276 voters had yet to receive a ballot. Lawyers aligned with both Democrats and Republicans have brought waves of lawsuits over the rules for the upcoming election. Judge Casey McGinley in Arizona, who blocked the Conchise County hand count on Monday, said he was presented "no evidence" that the machine tabulation of ballots is inaccurate. Another hand count in Nevada’s rural Nye County was shut down in favor of machine counting after the state supreme court struck down parts of the process.

Republican Juan Ciscomani is running against Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District. Republican Juan Ciscomani faces off against Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District. 2022 General EmbedsArizona's 6th Congressional District candidatesCiscomani is a senior advisor to incumbent GOP Gov. Voting history for Arizona's 6th Congressional DistrictArizona's 6th Congressional District stretches from the northern and eastern ends of Tucson across much of Cochise County. His opponent, Engel, has raised $2 million, spent $1.8 million, and has $202,241 cash on hand, as of September 30.

And in Arizona, a judge is preparing to rule on whether a hand count of ballots can proceed in Cochise County on the state’s southeastern border. Lawyers aligned with both Democrats and Republicans have brought waves of lawsuits seeking to define the voting rules for the midterm elections. And Georgia’s Cobb County is part of the populous Atlanta metropolitan area, which played a key role in Democrats' 2020 election wins. In the Cochise County hand count case, Arizona’s secretary of state’s office has argued that the longer hand-count process could risk the state’s ability to certify its election results by a Dec. 5 deadline. Another hand count in Nevada’s rural Nye County was shut down earlier this month in favor of machine counting after the state supreme court struck down key parts of the process.

☆ Republican Juan Ciscomani faces off against Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District election
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Republican Juan Ciscomani is running against Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District. Arizona's 6th Congressional District candidatesCiscomani is a senior advisor to incumbent GOP Gov. Voting history for Arizona's 6th Congressional DistrictArizona's 6th Congressional District stretches from the northern and eastern ends of Tucson across much of Cochise County. The money raceAccording to OpenSecrets, Ciscomani has raised $2.6 million, spent $2.2 million, and has $357,625 on hand, as of September 30. His opponent, Engel, has raised $2 million, spent $1.8 million, and has $202,241 cash on hand, as of September 30.

☆ Arizona county backs hand count of ballots in U.S. midterm elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Tim Reid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LOS ANGELES, Oct 25 (Reuters) - A Republican-controlled county in the presidential battleground state of Arizona voted to hand count ballots in next month's midterm congressional elections, a tallying method that has been called for by Republicans who claim voting machines are unreliable. Despite warnings by election experts that hand counting is less reliable, could delay results and is more expensive than machine tallies, the Cochise County Board of Supervisors in rural southeastern Arizona voted 2-1 on Monday to count ballots in November's elections by hand. The county will also count ballots by machine, but experts warned that a hand count could delay results of the Nov. 8 election and raises the prospect of two different vote totals, something they say could further undermine faith in the U.S. election system. The Republican candidates for governor, secretary of state and attorney general in Arizona this year all back Trump's election conspiracy theories and are in favor of hand counts. The two Republicans on the three-member County Board of Supervisors in Cochise County voted in favor of the hand count move, while the Democratic chairwoman voted against the measure.

☆ Smugglers Use Snapchat, Tiktok to Recruit Americans to Drive Migrants From the Border Into the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Alicia A. Caldwell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The posts appear briefly on social-media apps such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat promising hundreds or thousands of dollars for just a few hours of driving. “LMK DRIVERS. We provide the car and gas money,” read one post on Snapchat collected by the sheriff’s office in Arizona’s Cochise County. “Pay: $1500-$2500.

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