Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who narrowly won her election by 280 votes – the closest statewide race in Arizona’s history – convinced a grand jury to indict two Cochise County Supervisors for briefly delaying certification of the 2022 election in order to investigate the laws that were broken. Cochise County Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, both Republicans, also unsuccessfully attempted to conduct a hand count of the election. Mayes sued them over the delay last November.
“The repeated attempts to undermine our democracy are unacceptable,” Mayes said in a press release. She said the indictment alleged that “on or between October 11, 2022, and December 1, 2022, Judd and Crosby conspired to delay the canvass of votes cast in Cochise County in the November 2022 General Election.” She said this also interfered with the Secretary of State’s statewide canvassing.
State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), who chairs the powerful Senate Elections Committee and champions election integrity, posted on X, “BASED. BRAVE. TENACIOUS. Mark my word, those who stand strong in the face of jackbooted thuggery will never yield and will be the LAST ONES STANDING till the end. Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby should wear this as a badge of honor.”
BASED. BRAVE. TENACIOUS.
Mark my word, those who stand strong in the face of jackbooted thuggery will never yield and will be the LAST ONES STANDING till the end.
Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby should wear this as a badge of honor. https://t.co/FCplJ7Cxlz
— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) November 29, 2023
The pair are charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of interference with an election officer, both class 5 felonies. They appeared before a grand jury earlier this month. Democrat Ann English, the other supervisor on the board, opposed delaying the certification and is not being prosecuted.
The two supervisors delayed the certification by three days, until it was certified at a court ordered meeting that Crosby skipped. A big part of their concern was that the voting tabulator machines weren’t properly certified. Last October, Corporation Commissioner Jim O’Connor sent county officials around the state a letter warning them that using the machines violated the law since the machines weren’t in compliance with the Help America Vote Act due to not being accredited at the time they received their certificates of conformance. The machines’ accreditations expired in 2017 and 2018.
The indictment is no indication the two will ultimately be convicted. New York Judge Sol Wachtler said in 1985, “If a district attorney wanted, a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich.” Since grand juries are only allowed to see what the prosecution permits them to see, 28 states don’t even bother requiring them in order to pursue felony charges. The legal site Above the Law states, “[W]hile it sounds like a fancy legal term, don’t be fooled — indictments are easy to obtain.”
Democratic Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre, who was arrested last January for a super extreme DUI but refuses to step down, has refused to represent the pair regarding their actions in regards to the 2022 election, so they will be forced to fund their own legal representation.
The indictment may be retaliation for Crosby suing Mayes and other Arizona officials over certifying the election despite illegal activities such as improper signature verification. Crosby filed the lawsuit in August, and followed up with a response to the defendants’ Motion to Dismiss earlier this week. A Yavapai County Judge recently ruled that Maricopa County violated the law by not comparing voters’ signatures on mail-in ballot affidavits to their original signatures on their voter registrations.
In March, Mayes sued the supervisors for delegating election responsibilities to the county recorder — something Maricopa County had done for years until recently. Cochise County Recorder David Stevens, a Republican, is a known election integrity advocate. The previous elections director, Lisa Marra, resigned after coming under criticism for allegedly screening out election integrity proponents from working at the polls and refusing to turn over ballots for a full hand count when the board requested them. She accepted a position immediately after resigning with Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, an election fraud denier. A judge ruled against Mayes in April, holding that the delegation of election duties to Stevens was lawful.
The felonies could result in prison terms of 6 months to 2½ years each. A trial has been set for May 24, 2024. The case is CR2023-008495.
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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 “AG Kris Mayes” by AG Kris Mayes.
