Arizona County Officials Charged Over Attempts to Postpone Certifying 2022 Election Results

A voter places a ballot in a drop box outside of the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix, Arizona, on Aug. 2, 2022. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Two county supervisors in Arizona who stalled certifying mid-term election results have been charged by the state’s attorney general with conspiracy and interfering with an election officer.

In the Nov. 27 indictment filed in the superior court of Arizona, Terry Thomas “Tom” Crosby and Peggy Judd, supervisors in Cochise County, are facing two felony counts for initially refusing to certify the county’s 2022 election results, and face penalties of six months to two-and-a-half years in prison.

The indictment alleges Mr. Crosby and Ms. Judd conspired to delay Cochise County’s vote canvass and knowingly interfered with the secretary of state’s ability to complete a statewide vote canvass by the deadline. At the time, Judge Casey McGinley of the Pima County Superior Court instructed Cochise County’s board of three supervisors to convene and declare the election results official.

Judge McGinley’s ruling came three days after the Nov. 28, 2022, statutory deadline was missed. The failure of supervisors to certify the results before the state’s legal deadline was also found to be illegal. Cochise County was the only jurisdiction that did not certify the results by the deadline.

Mr. Crosby and Ms. Judd sought to push back certifying the results to review further claims the county’s voting equipment was not correctly certified under the law. The pair were seeking a hand count of all ballots. According to election officials, the machinery used during the election was approved correctly and functioning without malfunctions.

The third person on Cochise County’s Board of Supervisors, Anne English, voted against the motion to postpone the results. She is not facing any charges.

In a Nov. 29 press statement, Attorney General Kris Mayes, who in the past has vowed to prosecute anyone caught interfering in election results, has said her office will continue to fight to ensure free and fair elections.

“The repeated attempts to undermine our democracy are unacceptable,” she said.

“I took an oath to uphold the rule of law, and my office will continue to enforce Arizona’s elections laws and support our election officials as they carry out the duties and responsibilities of their offices,” Ms. Mayes added.

Attorney Dennis Wilenchik, representing Mr. Crosby, has told the media the interference charges against his client have no basis because the board certified its results before the statutory deadline for the secretary of state to canvass the statewide results. He believes the conspiracy charge is meritless and “nonsensical” because there was no agreement between the two supervisors to interfere with an election official.

“The indictment is the product of nothing but political partisanship,” Mr. Wilenchik said.

The attorney for Ms. Judd has not made any public statement yet. The Epoch Times has contacted Ms. Judd for comment on the indictment.

Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs (R) looks on as Kris Mayes (L), Democratic candidate for Arizona attorney general, speaks at a press conference in Tucson, Ariz., on Oct. 7, 2022. Mario Tama/Getty Images

In a statement to The Epoch Times, Mr. Crosby’s attorney, Dennis Wilenchik, said there was no election interference or conspiracy, and he looked forward to proving the innocence of his client in court.

According to Mr. Wilenchik, his client had legitimate concerns expressed before certifying the canvass, which were ignored.

“His job was to assure election integrity, and he attempted to get answers to do so, and he should not be punished for it,” Mr. Wilenchik said.

“He committed no crime, had no intent of doing so, and we are confident his efforts to protect the public and to assure a fair election process will be fully vindicated.

“Sadly, This is just political intimidation in the guise of law enforcement we have come to expect these days,” Mr. Wilenchik added.

Election Results Mired in Litigation

Following the postponement of the Cochise County election results in 2022, multiple lawsuits were filed by the candidates in the election, a resident on behalf of a nonprofit organization, and several others.

Then-Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who was eventually declared the victor of the state’s governor contest, sued Cochise County over the delay because, in her view, the county “had a statutory duty to certify the results of the 2022 General Election” by Nov. 28.

According to Ms. Hobbs’s lawsuit, failure to certify the results before Dec. 1 would “sow greater confusion and doubt about the integrity of Arizona’s election system” and she asked the court to issue an injunction compelling officials to do so, which was ultimately successful.

Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake, who lost to Ms. Hobbs by a narrow margin, also filed a lawsuit. Her lawsuit against Maricopa County election officials was over their administration of the midterm elections and alleged that of Maricopa County’s 223 polling centers, at least 118 locations experienced malfunctions or other problems.

Kari Lake, former Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, talks to reporters in the spin room following the FOX Business Republican Primary Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Sept. 27, 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images

On Dec. 1, 2022, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi ruled Ms. Lake’s allegations of fraud to be “baseless” and her lawsuit to be “frivolous.”

Another lawsuit was filed in Cochise County Superior Court on behalf of the nonprofit organization Arizona Alliance of Retired Americans and Cochise County resident Stephani Stephenson.

This lawsuit stated the Cochise County Board of Supervisors “does not have the discretion to refuse to canvass the results of the 2022 general election,” and that canvassing election results by a date specific is the board’s “mandatory legal duty under Arizona law.”

Election Fraud Allegations in the US

Allegations of voter fraud have been gaining steam since the 2020 presidential election, which saw President Joe Biden declared the winner against former President Donald Trump. To date, there have not been any official findings showing voter fraud in that election.

However, lawyers for President Trump recently asked a federal court in Washington to compel federal prosecutors to turn over any evidence they might have suggesting the existence of election fraud in the 2020 election.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of supporters at the Fort Dodge Senior High School in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Nov. 18, 2023. Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

In recent memory, there has only been one proven case of voter fraud. A primary election in Connecticut was overturned by a judge who said the evidence presented was “shocking.”

The Sept. 12 Democrat primary for the race to become Bridgeport’s mayor reportedly included thousands of absentee ballots. One of the candidates, John Gomes, presented evidence indicating some of the ballots were cast fraudulently.