Arizonaâs attorney general sued the Cochise County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, alleging its decision to hand complete control of elections to the Republican county recorder is illegal because it delegates all the boardâs responsibilities to another person.
Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat who took office in January, said the actions by the Republican-controlled board also threaten the publicâs ability to know how elections are being run. Thatâs because Recorder David Stevens assumed complete power to make decisions normally made, in public, by the Board of Supervisors.
Stevens is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
âWhile counties may appropriately enter into cooperative agreements with their recorders to manage elections, Cochise Countyâs agreement steps far over the legal line,ââ Mayes said.
Peggy Judd, one of the two Republican supervisors on the three-member board who voted to give Stevens the new authority, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mayesâ lawsuit.
Stevens said that with the county elections director job vacant, he is the only certified election official in the county who can run a May 16 special election in which voters are being asked to approve a new jail district tax.
âIâm the only guy that can run the elections,ââ Stevens said. âYou have two options, well, three: Me, find somebody else that can do this, or cancel the election to another day. If you cancel the election, this all goes away. Thereâs no reason for me to do it.ââ
The lawsuit says the board overstepped its bounds by delegating its authority over elections to another constitutionally created elected official.
The filing comes a week after the board signed a three-page agreement that allows Stevens to oversee the countyâs complete election process.
As recorder, Stevensâ normal duties include maintaining voter rolls, mailing early ballots and confirming their signatures after voters send back their completed ballots. But running the polling locations on Election Day, hiring poll workers and officials who serve as election officers, and the actual counting of ballots had all been handled by the county elections director, who is appointed by the board.
The countyâs former election director, Lisa Marra, quit last month after accusing the board of harassing her, undermining her authority and planning to hand her duties over to Stevens. The board had sued her to force her to hand-count the ballots in last Novemberâs election.
Marra refused to do the hand-count after the two Republican board members voted to take the unprecedented action and ordered her to do so. The other board member is a Democrat and opposed the move.
A group representing retired Arizonans sued, and a judge in Cochise County barred the vastly expanded hand-count just days before the Nov. 8 election.
The GOP board members, Judd and Tom Crosby, then refused to certify the election results. Then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs sued, and a judge ordered the board to certify the results. Hobbs is now governor.
Mayesâ lawsuit noted the boardâs previous court losses.
âOnce again, the judiciary is called upon to ensure that elections in Cochise County are conducted in accordance with the law,ââ it says.
She said the agreement between the board and Stevens not only threatens the lawful administration of elections, but also may threaten the publicâs right to know how government is making important decisions about how the election is run.
âIn shifting all election duties to the Recorder â a distinct constitutional county officer â the agreement says not a word about how or whether the public may still have access to deliberations on matters that the Board would normally consider in open meetings,ââ Mayes said.
Stevens, however, said the agreement does not give him carte blanche to do as he wishes.
Instead, it says the board must sign off on his decisions. He noted that the agreement was drafted by the county attorneyâs office, and only two small changes were made by the board before it signed off on it.
Stevens is a longtime friend of Republican former state Rep. Mark Finchem, a prominent proponent of the unsupported claims that the 2020 election that saw President Joe Biden elected was marred by fraud. Finchem has leveled similar charges regarding his own loss in November 2022 as he tried to become secretary of state, Arizonaâs top elections officer.
Stevens said any thought that he might use his new role to affect the operation or outcome of elections is misplaced.
âIf that was true â and Iâve been friends with Mark the entire time I was recorder â after the 2020 election why didnât I become the election director then to take over these duties?ââ Stevens said.
âBecause I never wanted the damn job,ââ he said. âI donât want it now. Iâm doing it because the county needs me to do it.ââ
At this Nov. 18 board meeting, Cochise County Supervisor Peggy Judd voted against certifying the county's 2022 election results, citing doubts about the certification of tabulation machines. Video courtesy of Cochise County.
