But, without the Cochise vote, that would put her ahead of Horne by 280 votes. If that occurs, it would eliminate the 27,767 votes that Republican Tom Horne got from Cochise County in the race for state schools chief.ĭemocrat incumbent Kathy Hoffman also would see her total reduced by 18,457. 8 without Cochise County's votes included,'' Gaona told the court in the Monday filing. "Absent this court's intervention, the secretary will have no choice but to complete the statewide canvass by Dec. In this new case, Hobbs has a contingency plan if the supervisors do not act. In fact, it actually showed that Joe Biden's margin of victory was slightly larger than the official tally. He represented Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired by Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, to "audit'' the results of the 2020 election in the races for president and senator.Ī hand count of those 2020 ballots, however, found that the results from the tabulators were accurate. And Blehm did not return a message seeking comment.īlehm has some history of being involved in election fights in Arizona. There was no discussion of who might provide the dollars. I do have to put it on the agenda for the board to pay for those items,'' he said. Karwaczka said, though, there's no problem as long as Blehm gets his fees paid by someone else and does not submit a bill to the county. "I don't believe that the board can accept private funding to pay for these attorneys,'' saying he has been informed by the county attorney's office that the board can't accept money for a specific purpose. which would come out of general fund,'' he told the supervisors. "If it's an attorney for the board, the board is responsible. Supervisor Tom Crosby, one of two Republicans on the board, said he presumes the defense will be "privately funded.'' But County Administrator Richard Karwaczka said it's not that simple. "We're in a situation where, because the actions of the board were contrary to Arizona law, our office won't be providing representation,'' County Attorney Brian McIntyre told the board. That move became necessary for the supervisors to continue the new fight. Attorney Bryan Blehm represented the county in its bid earlier this month to conduct a full hand count of ballots, an effort that was rejected McGinley. The vote by the supervisors was to retain The Valley Law Group to defend them. 8 deadline for completing the statewide canvass.'' Her attorney, Andrew Gaona, said that will "allow the secretary sufficient time to meet the final Dec. Only thing is, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs wants the judge to order the board to meet and certify the results by the end of the day Thursday. Their next meeting to consider the issue is Friday. 8 general election, at least not until they get the answers they want about the machines used to tabulate the ballots. They contend they do not have to formally canvass the votes of the Nov. Warner's ruling comes as Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley scheduled a hearing for Thursday on the latest legal fight that Cochise County supervisors are picking with the state.īoard members voted Tuesday to hire outside counsel a day after they failed to meet the legal deadline to certify the election results. But they have insisted that no one was denied the ability to cast a ballot, even if it was not tallied on site. That includes issues where tabulators at some vote centers could not read ballots printed on site and that some people were denied the right to vote when they went to a second location.Ĭounty officials acknowledged the printer problem when the supervisors canvassed their votes on Monday. Hamadeh contends that the results of the election showing that Democrat Kris Mayes got 510 more votes should be disregarded because of various problems in Maricopa County on Election Day. Warner's ruling does not end the dispute. "It is undisputed that the canvass and declaration of results for the November 2022 election have not occurred.'' "There can be no election contest until after the canvass and declaration of the results because, until then, no one is 'declared elected,' '' the judge wrote. Warner said Arizona law requires challenges to election results to be filed "within five days after completion of the canvass of the election.'' That isn't set to occur at this point until Dec. In a brief order, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner called the lawsuit by the losing candidate in the race "premature.'' PHOENIX - A judge on Tuesday tossed out Abe Hamadeh's legal bid to have himself declared the winner in the race for Arizona attorney general.
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