Ariz. county ordered to certify election as GOP lawyers are sanctioned

A judge in Arizona on Thursday ordered the governing board of a ruby-red county in the southeastern corner of the state to certify the results of the Nov. 8 election, finding that its members had no authority to shirk a duty required under state law.

“You will meet today,” Superior Court Judge Casey F. McGinley told the three members of the Cochise County Board of Supervisors. “You will canvass the election no later than 5 o’clock.”

When the board convened at 3:30 p.m., with one Republican absent, the two remaining supervisors, one Republican and one Democrat, voted to certify the results.

The surrender, under court order, ended a standoff in Cochise County that threatened to upend the state’s process for affirming the will of more than 2.5 million Arizona voters. The ensuing chaos could have undermined the projected victories of Republicans in a U.S. House seat and the statewide race for schools superintendent.

Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state and governor-elect, moved aggressively to head off that scenario. Her office sued the Cochise County board on Monday, after its members voted 2-1 to flout a deadline for all counties to certify the results in a process known as canvassing the election. State certification is set for Dec. 5.

The denouement in Cochise County played out as a federal judge, also on Thursday, sanctioned lawyers for Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, the unsuccessful GOP candidates for governor and secretary of state, respectively. Taken together, the orders show how judges are scorning efforts to politicize ministerial roles and undermine election administration.

Fossil

Article URL : https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/01/arizona-cochise-county-kari-lake-sanctions/