Mohave County officials backed down from a proposed policy to hand count all future ballots after Attorney General Kris Mayes threatened criminal charges.
The Mohave County Board of Supervisors convened on Monday to discuss whether they would hand-count all ballots for the 2024 election and beyond; the board declined the policy in a divided vote. Mayes congratulated the board for heeding her threat.
“I am greatly relieved and commend the Mohave County Board of Supervisors for their decision not to authorize a hand count of all ballots for the 2024 election, upholding Arizona law,” said Mayes. “The Board’s decision to adhere to state-mandated procedures for ballot counting avoids potential legal complications and reinforces public trust in the integrity of our elections.”
I am greatly relieved and commend the Mohave County Board of Supervisors for their decision not to authorize a hand count of all ballots for the 2024 election, upholding Arizona law. As Attorney General, it is my duty to enforce our laws and ensure the integrity of our elections.
During the meeting, State Sen. Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli (R-LD30) said that the county could count on an amicus brief from the House and Senate should the county vote for hand counting ballots and face criminal prosecution.
Supervisor Hildy Angius clarified that hand counting wasn’t as “easy-peasy” as sitting down and physically tabulating the ballot. Angius agreed that problems continue to plague Arizona’s elections, namely calling out mail-in ballots.
Supervisor Ron Gould challenged the notion that no election problems could exist in their county because the law doesn’t allow supervisors access to the voting logs. As a challenge to the strength of voting machines, Gould said that when he served as a state senator in 2005, voting machines in the Republican state representative primary were found to be severely defunct — out of calibration by as much as 18 percent — after a recount flipped the race by 250 votes.
“My biggest concern here today is that folks are losing faith in elections; they don’t think their vote counts,” said Gould. “So much for the infallibility of voting machines.”
Borrelli suggested that Mohave County count ballots through hand counts at the precinct level, then through tabulators at the county level prior to certification. However, Deputy County Attorney Ryan Esplin said that couldn’t be done in light of Mayes’ letter and their own legal analysis. Esplin advised that the board err on the side of caution by adhering strictly to what statute allowed. The county attorney noted that ARS § 16-443 and 16-445 necessarily implied that hand counts could be used, but that 16-622 and 16-602 undermined that argument. Both of those latter statutes were cited by Mayes in her Sunday letter.
“It has to be spelled out in statute, or necessarily implied: that’s the legal standard. There is no statute that specifically authorizes a hand count, and that’s why we say we do not believe you can do a hand count, because there’s no statute that authorizes it,” said Esplin. “Take the safe route: use the machines, because we know those are legal, we know the law, the law says very clear, ‘This is what we do.’”
Supervisors Gould and Angius voted for hand counting ballots; Supervisors Buster Johnson, Jean Bishop, and Travis Lingenfelter voted against.
Mayes sent a letter to the Mohave County supervisors on Sunday that she would file criminal charges against them should they vote to hand count all ballots for the 2024 election and beyond. The attorney general said that the hand count method was not only too slow and less accurate, it also wasn’t permitted by statute. Mayes cited A.R.S. § 16-449, 16-468, 16-602, 16-621, and 16-622.
Mayes also expressed concern that the board was influenced by “bad-faith actors” aiming to sow doubt and undermine Arizona elections.
NEW: AG Kris Mayes sends letter to Mohave County supervisors ahead of today's vote to hand-count ballots.
"We hope you will choose not to violate the law and thus that it will not be necessary for us to consider whether criminal prosecution is warranted"https://t.co/49Whuh7Dq9pic.twitter.com/8c0o0jPSpJ
In a viral response to Mayes’ statement on Monday, conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley criticized Mayes as “an illegitimate attorney general” that benefited from election fraud.
“Yeah forcing ballots into the same machines that shut down on election day in Maricopa is one hell of a way to ‘reinforce public trust,’” said O’Handley.
Yeah forcing ballots into the same machines that shut down on election day in Maricopa is one hell of a way to “reinforce public trust”
You are an illegitimate Attorney General making sure nobody fixes the election fraud you beneffited from
A bill meant to add transparency to Arizona’s elections is approaching its final hurdle in the Legislature.
HB 2722, sponsored by Representative Gail Griffin, “authorizes the officer in charge of elections, the county recorder or any person who is designated by the county board of supervisors to count all or any portion of the ballots in an election by hand” – according to the purpose provided by the Arizona Senate.
In a statement to the House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee, Representative Griffin explained the purpose of her legislation: “It’s a simple bill. It allows the counties to do a hand count. We believe that they already have the authority to do it, but this clarifies it.”
Last month, Griffin’s bill cleared the Arizona House by a party-line 31-28 vote – with one member (Representative Shah) not voting. Before the action from the full chamber, HB 2722 passed the House Municipal Oversight and Elections Committee with a 6-4 tally; all Republicans voting in favor of the legislation and all Democrats in opposition).
After the House transmitted this bill to the Senate, it was assigned to the Elections Committee, chaired by Senator Wendy Rogers. Rogers recently brought HB 2722 up for consideration, and it passed out of her committee with another party-line vote of 5-3.
During the committee hearing, Representative Griffin stopped by to testify for her bill. She told the members of the committee that she had worked with the Cochise County Recorder David Stevens on the bill’s language.
Democrat Senator Anna Hernandez had some harsh words for the bill sponsor before voting against the bill in the Senate committee: “I’m not inclined to support any legislation that is being pushed by someone who runs an institute that posts conspiracy theories…around elections.” Another fellow Democrat on the committee, Senator Mendez, added, “Advocates, policy advisors – everyone has noted to us that hand counts only produce inaccurate results, confused voters, and consume extensive time, money, and labor…We should not be inviting all of this chaos and pretending as if this is going to solve our problems.”
Senator Rogers had the final word on the bill before it officially passed her committee, saying, “Whatever it takes to get accurate, reliable results – because 250 years of blood and treasure have been spilled for our sacred vote.” She also read a 2019 quote from then-U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, which stated: “This shouldn’t be a controversial statement: The United States must embrace hand-marked paper ballots.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Election integrity measures haven’t been a source of unity for all Arizona Republicans over the past two years, but one bill just introduced by a state senator may have brought the party somewhat closer together on one aspect of reform.
The one-page bill, SB 1471, was recently introduced by Senator John Kavanagh, dealing with ballot tabulation and hand count comparison. According to the legislation, which would only apply to Arizona counties with a population of more than two million persons, “the officer in charge of elections in (these counties) shall randomly select four election precincts in the county from the ballot test decks used for logic and accuracy testing for the 2022 general election and shall recount all races using one hundred of those ballots from each precinct.” There would be a hand count of these ballots that would coincide with the machine count.
The legislation requires a county recorder to “compare the tabulator total and the hand count,” and take additional steps to recheck the counts should there be a “difference in the totals that is greater than one-tenth of one percent.” The county recorder would then “estimate how many persons working sixteen hours a day would be required to hand county the entire number of ballots cast in the November 2022 election.” After the conclusion of this process, the county recorder would transmit the report to the governor, president of the Arizona Senate, and the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer released a statement this week that appeared to be in support of the legislation, saying, “Smart legislation is key to improving Arizona’s elections and voters’ trust. …This legislation will build confidence in our election system by showing that machine tabulation is highly accurate, free of bias and fast. Thanks to Senator Kavanagh for this good idea.”
It remains to be seen if Republicans at the Legislature will be appreciative of Recorder Richer’s statement on SB 1471. Maricopa County officials and members of the Arizona Legislature have not always seen eye-to-eye over election integrity since the 2020 presidential contest, and there are often competing interests or motivations even in a perceived daylight of agreement between two opposing factions. Some legislative Republicans may see this bill as an opportunity to validate hand counts, while other Republicans may view this legislation as an endorsement of machine counting.
This bill has not been assigned to a committee, nor does it have any cosponsors at the time of publication.
Should this legislation pass the Arizona Senate and House, it remains to be seen whether it would be signed into law by Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs, who has promised to use her veto stamp on bills she believes are partisan in nature.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: to those who want to work together to address Arizona's biggest challenges, my door is always open.
To those who would rather stick with their partisan agendas, my veto pen is ready.https://t.co/tC4Or9uRmb
