After the November 3, 2020, General Election, my colleague Supervisor Steve Christy and I voted against a canvass of the election results. At the time, we had serious concerns about the process employed by the County Elections Department as well the unprecedented use of $1 million dollars from the Chan Zuckerberg foundation specifically earmarked to hire poll workers.
Faith in the election process and our judicial system would be strengthened if those who are elected to do the hard thing at the right time stood up to the bullies and their hollow threats, acting on conscience and not out of fear.
I was notified during the 2020 election, that long-time registered voters who were U.S. citizens were being forced by poll workers to accept federal only ballots. These ballots include federal races only and are to be utilized for voters who aren’t American citizens. When one voter dared to question a poll worker about their ballot, they were told to either vote the ballot or they would be removed from the poll for obstructing the election. After I notified the elections director about this issue, the Arizona Daily Star reported that approximately 40 Republican voters were disenfranchised by the actions of a poll worker. While this was the case at one poll, I learned after the election that this scenario played out at several other polls and seemed to happen to Republican voters only.
Our votes against certification barely made the headlines, and certainly did not elicit threats of jail or other legal consequences from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office (AZSOS) or anyone else for that matter. So, when two members of the Cochise County Board of Supervisors were threatened with legal consequences by the AZSOS and a group represented by the law firm of the high-powered Russia gate hoax attorney, Marc Elias, if the results of the 2022 General Election were not certified, I was stunned.
Arizona statute §16-642(A) requires the boards of supervisors of each county holding an election to meet and canvass the election not less than six nor more than twenty days following the election. Nowhere in the statute, or in any Arizona statute, is an elected official forced to act in an unethical manner. Supervisors have a duty to question any and all irregularities on behalf of the people who elect us to office. Had I certified that 2020 General Election, it would have been a violation of my constitutional duty and a serious breach of ethics.
Throughout history, politicians and “good soldiers” have obeyed illegal orders. Those figures have been rightly scorned for their betrayal of the public rather than hailed for their obedience. Certifying an election is not simply a ministerial duty. If irregularities are identified by voters it is incumbent upon the supervisors to notify the elections director and get answers.
As Americans, it is instilled in us to question authority and reject evil edicts and it used to be considered patriotic, even noble to question the results of elections.
In 2016, Democratic candidate for President Hillary Clinton questioned the results. She was praised for her perseverance. In fact, according to The Wall Street Journal, the very first “election deniers” were all democrats, and one socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
I am told that some members of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors were reluctant this year to certify the election held there. I attended a Pinal County Board of Supervisors ‘meeting in early 2023 when one board member requested a hearing on this matter, and it was clear to all in the audience there had been a rush to certify prior to the legal timeline identified in statutes. It was also clear this rush was due to the elections director being rewarded with a $25,000 bonus as she was rushing to move out of state. The new elections director came to this same conclusion in this meeting. In hindsight, delaying certification of that election would have been prudent given the election officials’ disastrous handling of it and the impact it had across the state.
Then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs withheld critical evidence related to Pinal County’s mismanagement that resulted in hundreds of uncounted ballots. Many believe that had the evidence come to light before Abe Hamadeh, the Republican candidate for Arizona Attorney General, appeared before a Mohave County judge in his election challenge, we would have a different attorney general in office today. Arizonans deserve better and also deserve an answer as to why this information was withheld by Hobbs.
More importantly, Arizonan’s faith in our election process, which has been so severely damaged, could have been restored. Faith in the election process and our judicial system would be strengthened if those who are elected to do the hard thing at the right time stood up to the bullies and their hollow threats, acting on conscience and not out of fear.
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