Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022
Does Cochise County, Arizona have explicit legal authority to hand count all the ballots it receives in the 2022 election?
Cochise County, Arizona does not have explicit legal authority to hand count all the ballots it receives in the upcoming midterm elections.
“A hand count may only be used if tabulating with certified equipment becomes impracticable,” according to C. Murphy Hebert, a spokesperson for the Arizona Secretary of State's office.
Cochise County supervisors say they will also do a machine count. Even so, Deputy Cochise County Attorney Christine Roberts warned them that they do not have "express authority" to do a full hand count and that attempting to do so would incur lawsuits and a potential loss of state funding.
Other legal issues include that it's against the law to change election procedures this close to an election, conducting a hand count could delay results past certification deadlines, and that vote counters could leak ballot tallies before results are finalized.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Arizona Mirror Hand-counting of ballots in Cochise County deemed illegal
- The Arizona Republic Despite warnings of legal consequences, Cochise County supervisors vote for hand count of ballots
- Arizona Legislature Proceedings at the counting center
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.
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