CNN
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The Arizona Secretary of State’s Workplace on Friday requested state and native prosecutors to research and take enforcement motion towards two Republican officers who had balked at certifying their county’s election outcomes by the authorized deadline.
Within the referral letter, State Elections Director Kori Lorick stated Cochise County Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd “knew that they had a statutory requirement to canvass the election by November 28, however as an alternative selected to behave in violation of the legislation, placing false election narratives forward of Cochise County’s voters.”
The supervisors’ “blatant act of defying Arizona’s election legal guidelines dangers establishing a harmful precedent that we should discourage,” Lorick wrote within the letter despatched to Legal professional Basic Mark Brnovich and Cochise County Legal professional Brian McIntyre. “I ask that you just examine this conduct and take all needed motion to carry these public officers accountable.”
When reached by telephone Friday, Judd stated: “I’m not speaking to anybody anymore. Sorry.” CNN additionally has reached out to Crosby for remark.
Brnovich’s workplace confirmed through electronic mail that it had obtained the letter however didn’t add additional remark.
McIntyre didn’t instantly reply to CNN’s inquiry.
The referral comes a day after Judd and the board’s sole Democrat, Chairwoman Ann English, voted to certify the midterm election outcomes after a decide ordered them to take action – guaranteeing that the county’s roughly 47,000 common election votes could be included in subsequent week’s certification of statewide outcomes.
Thursday’s vote, which Crosby skipped, capped a high-profile confrontation between the 2 Republicans on the three-member board and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat and the state’s governor-elect.
Hobbs and a retirees’ group had sued to power the certification.
The Republicans on the county board had initially delayed signing off on the outcomes, citing claims that digital vote-tallying machines weren’t correctly licensed.
State election officers stated the machines had been examined and licensed and argued that the Republicans on the panel had been advancing debunked conspiracy theories.
Lorick’s letter cites three state legal guidelines that set up legal penalties for “failing to carry out an election obligation.” Two are misdemeanors and one is a Class 6 felony, the least critical felony classification within the state.
Brnovich and McIntyre, the native prosecutor, are Republicans.
In latest weeks, McIntyre and the 2 GOP supervisors in Cochise have been at odds. McIntyre has refused to supply authorized illustration to them within the certification dispute and of their separate, failed efforts to conduct a broad hand depend audit of ballots, arguing that these actions violate state legislation.
