On Wednesday, August 27, the Arizona Secretary of State reported that Cochise County had 1,130 early ballots, 392 provisional ballots, left to process and count. On Thursday, August 28, the Arizona Secretary of State reported that Cochise County had 2,700 early ballots, and 392 provisional ballots left to count.
Also on Thursday, the Cochise County Board of Supervisors released a statement in which they noted that “accurate reporting of the Aug 26 election results from Cochise County to the Secretary of State had to be delayed until late Aug 27 due to technical difficulties.”
Cochise County Information Technologies is working with the County’s vendors and the State “to identify the problem and resolve it,” according to the statement.
The County claims that although these technical difficulties have delayed reporting of election results, the data generated by each precinct have been verified and are accurate. Graham County’s reporting system was used to transmit the initial election information to the Secretary of State and will continue to be used for early ballots received Aug 25 and 26 and provisional ballots received at the polls on Aug 26.
The County expects all remaining ballots to be counted and posted to the Secretary of State’s Office by close of business Tuesday Sept 2.
The State mandated process of performing a hand count of random precincts reconvened on Thursday morning at the County Elections Office located at 1415 Melody Lane, Building A in Bisbee.
“Although I am not happy that this situation has developed, I am extremely pleased with the response from our County Departments and Elected Officers.” said Pat Call, Chair of the Cochise County Board of Supervisors. “Everyone from Sheriff Mark Dannels letting us use Cochise Air (helicopter) to transport the data cards, to Recorder Christine Rhodes allocating staff to assist in answering Elections’ phones as well as our own Information Technology staff dealing with the system failures, have really stepped up. It demonstrates the strength of our team and the commitment we all have to our residents.”
The State requires Election offices to have a backup plan for catastrophic failures such as what Cochise has experienced. Cochise County’s backup is Graham County since they have the same software and hardware. “We are very appreciative of the cooperation we were able to count on from Graham County,” said Call. “We have partnered with them on other fronts and are very glad our neighbors to the north were able to help us.”
Canvassing of the election will be held on September 4 at 10 am at the Board of Supervisor hearing room at 1415 Melody Lane, Building G,Arizona Secretary of State , AZ.