BISBEE — Following a ruling Thursday afternoon by a Cochise County Superior Court judge that the Cochise County Board of Supervisors must canvass the 2022 general election results, the board voted 2-0 to make the election results official.
Supervisor Tom Crosby, who led the effort to delay canvassing the results, declined to take part in the board’s emergency meeting Thursday afternoon following the court hearing.
Supervisor Peggy Judd, who represents Willcox and also supported delaying the canvas of the election results, said she would now vote in favor due to the judge’s ruling. However, she said she was proud of her efforts to call into question the accuracy of the results.
“I can’t say enough about how important this effort is that we made, and I am not ashamed of anything I did,” Judd said.
Thursday’s hearing was the result of a lawsuit filed by the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, asking the court to compel the board to follow its statutory duty to canvas election results.
The deadline for counties to canvas was Nov. 28, but the Cochise County Board planned to delay any action until Dec. 2 at the earliest, putting the statutory deadline for the Secretary of State’s Office to certify statewide results at risk.
Without the court compelling the Cochise Board to act, the Secretary of State’s Office said it could result in Cochise County votes being excluded from the state’s total, which would have changed the Dist. 6 Congressional and state Superintendent of Public Instruction races.
At that Dec. 2 meeting, Crosby planned to hear from a number of men who claimed the state’s voting machines were not properly certified, claims the men had previously made and were rejected by the Arizona Supreme Court multiple times.
Following Thursday’s vote, the Dec. 2 Cochise Board of Supervisors’ meeting was cancelled.
