The Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) unanimously passed a resolution on December 5 calling on the Arizona House of Representatives to impeach Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes (pictured above). The resolution cited Mayes’ record opposing election integrity, notably her prosecution of two Cochise County Supervisors over delaying the certification of the 2022 election for three days.
The MCRC executive board and all legislative district chairs voted for the resolution, which began, “WHEREAS, We, the Executive Guidance Committee of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, condemn Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ illegitimate political prosecution of the brave elected officials of Cochise County, Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby, for acting in accordance with their oath of office.” It accused Mayes of “abusing her prosecutorial powers as the Arizona Attorney General,” by engaging in “an act of political prosecution common in dictatorships or communist countries.”
It listed “widespread vote tabulating equipment malfunctions” in Maricopa County and “critical tabulation errors” in Pinal County. Although Pinal Supervisor Jeff Serdy expressed his concerns about the latter, “Election Director Virginia Ross did not acknowledge these concerns and County Attorney Volkmer stated ‘I can tell you that I am incredibly confident, as confident as I could possibly be, in the numbers that are being provided to this board.’”
However, “[p]ublic records later determined that the Pinal County canvass report was never balanced,” and “Pinal County Recorder Dana Lewis notified the AZSOS of the errors in an email prior to the State canvass and alerted them that they had ‘some discrepancies,’” the resolution said.
The resolution cited A.R.S. 11-251.3 as giving “the Board of Supervisors the authority to ‘canvass election returns,’” and A.R.S. 16–622(A) the authority to certify the results. Regarding the latter, the resolution said “the Legislature expressly left the decision as to ‘when’ to certify any result obtained by the vote tabulating equipment to the discretion of the County Board of Supervisors.”
Additionally, the resolution referred to SCR 1037, which found “that computerized voting machines used in Arizona were not transparent and contained components manufactured, assembled, or tested in foreign nations like China and thus posed a threat to the security of elections,” and “cited actual breaches of voting systems and uncured vulnerabilities making voting systems such as those used in Arizona subject to a material risk of manipulation.”
After Arizona Corporation Commissioner Jim O’Connor warned officials around the state that using electronic voting machine tabulators in the election would violate the law, the Cochise County Supervisors unsuccessfully attempted to hand count ballots for the 2022 election.
The resolution concluded stating that the election discrepancies “raise significant questions about the legitimacy of Kris Mayes’ election as Attorney General.” It said her “actions interfere with the independent powers of the Legislative branch which sets forth the responsibilities and authority of the County Board of Supervisors and thus violates the separation of power vested by the US and the Arizona State Constitutions.”
Mayes is widely expected to initiate prosecution of the alternate slate of electors from the 2020 election, who include former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), and State Senator Anthony Kern (R-Glendale).
The Arizona Freedom Caucus, which is led by Hoffman, plans to vigorously oppose Mayes’ prosecution of the two Cochise County Supervisors, and expects to have near-unanimous support in the legislature, Hoffman said. He said impeachment is under consideration.
Mayes’ first year in office has been full of turmoil, with multiple staffers deserting the office during the first few months. In June, a bar complaint was filed against Mayes accusing her of violating her ethical duties to two state clients by threatening one with a potential criminal investigation and publicly admonishing another client in a press release.
In July, Jennifer Wright, the office’s Election Integrity Unit civil attorney under Mayes’ predecessor Mark Brnovich, started the process of suing Mayes for defamation. Wright asked the Arizona Supreme Court to investigate Mayes for ethics violations for releasing attorney-client privileged work to the public. Wright said she decided to join Republican Abe Hamadeh’s election contest challenging his loss to Mayes due to Mayes targeting her.
Mayes is still embroiled in litigation with Hamadeh, who lost by only 280 votes. Then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs withheld evidence from Hamadeh during his election contest trial revealing that there were undervotes not counted in Pinal County that favored him. Mayes, a former commissioner on the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), has been accused of never having practiced law before becoming attorney general. She said she engaged in prosecution while on the ACC, which O’Connor disputes, since a law degree is not required to serve on the commission and Arizona law does not allow the practice of law unless a member of the State Bar of Arizona.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “A.G. Kris Mayes” by A.G. Kris Mayes.
