Arizona county board gives recorder election role
BISBEE, Ariz. — A rural Arizona county board that was embroiled last year in voting machine conspiracies voted Tuesday to give responsibility for elections through 2024 to the county’s elected Republican recorder, a move the state attorney general’s office suggested may be illegal.
The two Republicans on the three-member Cochise County Board of Supervisors backed the agreement giving administrative election duties to county Recorder David Stevens, another Republican. Democrat Ann English voted against it, saying the legality of the measure needed to be studied.
“I hope we don’t regret it,” English said.
Peggy Judd, one of the two Republican county supervisors, said she felt comfortable moving ahead, and noted that the board could abandon the agreement if things didn’t work out.
“I just don’t want to put it off,” she said.
The other Republican who voted in favor of the measure was Tom Crosby, who is the subject of a recall effort.
English said that in light of the caution from the attorney general’s office, “I think we are acting in an inappropriate and ill-advised way.”
Stevens would replace Lisa Marra, who was the country’s respected elections director before she recently resigned from the nonpartisan position after five years. Marra had objected to unsuccessful efforts by Republicans on the board to conduct a full hand count of last year’s midterm vote amid conspiracies that ballot tabulators were illegal or faulty. Arizona’s Solicitor Joshua Bendor sent a letter to Cochise County Attorney Brian Mcintyre on Monday, warning that he had “serious questions about the legality of the Board’s intended course of action.” He noted that there was nothing in state statutes to allow a county board to give its recorder full administrative responsibility for elections.