Apparently Katie Hobbs stinks at cheating
Either the conspiracy theorists and election deniers are totally wrong about Gov.-elect and current Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, or she is really, really bad at cheating.
I mean, come on.
This is a gift, a freebie, a waist-high fastball served right down the middle of the plate just asking for Hobbs to knock it out of the park.
In a 2-1 vote, with the lone Democrat going against the majority Republicans, the kooky supervisors of Cochise County are holding out on certifying their county’s election results. And instead of saying, “Thank you,” and heaping praising on the blundering blockheads on the board, Hobbs’ office decided to sue them for not following state law.
Or, as Arizona Election Services Director Kori Lorick put it, “In the event that they fail to canvas by the deadline, we are prepared to take legal action and ask a court to require them to carry out their statutory responsibility. What Arizona law says is that the County Board of Supervisors has a non-discretionary duty to canvass the County's election results … So, under the law, they have this responsibility, and refusing to canvass would essentially disenfranchise all of the voters in Cochise County.”
What did I tell you? Terrible at cheating.
If Hobbs and her office chose not to follow the law and, essentially, look the other way, it would be a bonanza for Democrats, pennies from heaven.
Cochise County is heavily Republican. According to records on the county’s website, Republican Juan Ciscomani received nearly 14,000 more votes than Democrat Kirsten Engle in their race for Arizona’s 6th congressional district.Likewise, Republican Tom Horne received 9,000 more votes than Democrat Kathy Hoffman in the contest for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
If the supervisors were to refuse to certify their election results and, as the law provides, “disenfranchise all of the voters in Cochise County,” Democrats would have enough votes from the other 14 counties to win both of those races.
All Katie Hobbs’ office has to do to make that happen is turn a blind eye. Don’t file a lawsuit. Don’t do anything.
Let the goofball Republican majority on the Cochise County board – who, ironically, squawk about non-existent voting irregularities – negate the votes of tens of thousands of their residents, the majority of them from their own party.
There would be no easier way to “steal” a couple of elections.
If Hobbs was part of some sinister scheme to defraud Arizona voters as the loser Kari Lake claims – without any proof – she would welcome the board’s refusal to certify the vote.
She would be delivering one national and one statewide office to fellow Democrats.
Instead, she’s doing just the opposite. She’s taking the side of the law and the citizens in Cochise County, even though they supported her opponent by more than 8,000 votes.
So, either Hobbs is a fair-minded, law-following straight shooter or … she really, really stinks at cheating.
Reach Montini at ed.montini@ arizonarepublic.com