By Staff Reporter |

Cochise County approved the election results, despite their hand count audit failing to count nearly 60 percent of the required number of ballots.

The Cochise County Board of Supervisors accepted and certified their canvass during a brief special meeting on Wednesday. 

The county’s election director, Marisol Renteria, presented the canvass alongside Joe Casey. Casey said that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre gave election officials permission to certify the election despite the incorrect hand count total.

“On November 19, it was brought to our attention that there was an incorrect calculation done on the number of hand counts for early voters but at this time we had contacted the secretary of state and county attorney’s office and we’re in agreement that we are ready to certify the election,” said Casey. 

Casey noted that the discrepancies found within their undercounted hand count audit were within the “acceptable margin of error.” Indeed, Fontes’ office has marked the status of the county’s hand count as “completed,” having discrepancies “within the acceptable margin.”

None of the supervisors questioned or challenged the audit undercount, contributing to the brevity of the meeting at just seven minutes long.

My Herald Review first reported on the county’s failure to audit all the required ballots.

Hand count audits ensure the accuracy of the machine ballot counting.

The report from the county’s election director, Marisol Renteria, showed that the county audited only 200 ballots rather than the nearly 500 required. State law requires auditing one percent of the total number of cast early ballots. Cochise County based their one percent off of the initial batch of early ballots tabulated on Election Day, rather than the total number of early ballots cast. 

Casey noted that the county experienced other issues during the election as well. This included vote center wait times reaching well over two hours, a bomb threat on Election Day at vote center two, and a power outage on November 13 lasting about five hours.

“We did deal with some challenges, some abnormalities and some incidents throughout the last few weeks,” said Casey.

Supervisor Peggy Judd — who made the motion to accept the results — thanked the elections staff, and added that they weren’t at fault for the election issues, including the recently-discovered audit undercount.

“No one can be blamed, it was just something that was going to happen. It would have happened to anyone. I’m glad it wasn’t me,” said Judd. 

Judd and fellow supervisor Tom Crosby faced indictments for felony-level election interference and conspiracy over their delaying certification of the 2022 election results. Judd and Crosby maintained concerns over election equipment malfunctions that occurred and desired a complete audit of in-person election day ballots. 

Last month, Judd pleaded guilty to election interference and entered into a plea deal for a misdemeanor, avoiding the felony punishments: 90 days’ minimum unsupervised probation and a $500 fine. 

Supervisor Ann English commended the elections staff for finding solutions to the problems presented during the election. English remarked that this time around, the county had “an efficient, effective election.”

This election, the county had 82,200 registered voters, with a 72 percent voter turnout (almost 60,000 voters).

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