AZ: A Cochise official's (R) vote for hand-counting ballots came at a cost. Will anyone help her pay it?
Peggy Judd listened with interest in late November as Arizona state Sen. Sonny Borrelli urged county supervisors in an area he represents to hand-count ballots in the 2024 elections instead of using machines.
The Mohave County supervisors had been warned that doing so would be illegal. But Borrelli promised them that if they went ahead, “private individuals” would pay for a lawyer to represent them.
“The funding is already in place,” he said, declining to identify the private individuals.
Mohave supervisors nonetheless voted against hand-counting — but Judd, 61, a supervisor in southeast Arizona’s Cochise County, wondered if the offer of free legal help applied to her. She could use it.
A year earlier, Judd and fellow Cochise Supervisor Tom Crosby had voted to expand their county’s hand-count audit of the 2022 midterm election ballots, and also to delay certification. The two Republicans have since been indicted by a state grand jury for alleged conspiracy and interference with an election officer, both felonies. According to recently filed court documents, prosecutors believe that in voting to expand the hand count, Crosby and Judd were attempting to delay or prevent the canvass.
https://www.votebeat.org/arizona/2024/04/15/cochise-county-supervisor-peggy-judd-indictment-legal-help-borrelli-lindell/
