[Politics] Arizona election deniers indicted for holding up midterm results

[El Máster Edwin]

The two Cochise County officials are the latest Republicans to face criminal charges related to election denialism.

Cochise County District 1 Supervisor Tom Crosby was indicted by a federal grand jury for delaying election certification. 

 

A grand jury voted to indict two local officials who delayed the certification of midterm election results in 2022 in Cochise County, Arizona, state Attorney General Kris Mayes said Wednesday.

Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd, 61, and Tom Crosby, 64, voted against certifying the county’s election results by the statutory deadline in 2022, after months of casting baseless doubt on the integrity of the election. The county only certified its election results after a court ordered them to do so.

The indictment alleges that Judd and Crosby committed two felonies by conspiring to delay the certification of election results and interfering with the secretary of state’s statewide canvas. Both are Class 5 felonies, which can carry prison terms of 6 months to 2.5 years.

Cochise County District 3 Supervisor Peggy Judd.

 

“The repeated attempts to undermine our democracy are unacceptable,” Mayes, a Democrat, said in a statement.

While each state's election laws differ, local officials’ stamp of approval is often required during the election certification process across the country.

If Cochise hadn't certified their results by the statewide deadline and the state had been forced to affirm their election results without including the Republican county's 47,000 votes, Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani would have lost his race for the U.S. House.

 

The fight in Cochise County began well before the election, as Judd and Crosby cast baseless doubt on the voting machines and sought to do a hand count of all the ballots, something state law doesn't permit. The pair also sued the county elections director, Lisa Marra, who later quit her job after five years running the county's elections.

Judd participated in the Jan. 6th “Stop the Steal” rally in 2021, but denied entering the Capitol or any wrongdoing in an interview with the Tuscon Sentinel. The paper also reported that she has spread conspiracy theories online.

She and Crosby are the latest Republicans to face criminal charges related to election denialism. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than a dozen Republicans who agreed to serve as fake electors to the Electoral College in 2020 have also been charged in Georgia and Michigan.

 

 

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