Keeping American Elections Secure: Accountability for Breaking the Law

 Judd, Crosby Indicted for Failure to Certify 2022 Election in Cochise County, Arizona

Two county supervisors in Cochise County, Arizona, have been indicted on charges of conspiracy and interference of an elections officer.  Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, the two Republicans on the three-member county board of supervisors, were indicted because they failed to follow state law in certifying the results of the 2022 mid-term elections in the county, and because they tried to force the county's elections supervisor to order an illegal hand count of the ballots, something she knew was against the law.  

Judd and Crosby false conspiracy theories in attempting to strong-arm the county's election supervisor, Lisa Marra, into ordering a hand-count of ballots because they believed, without any evidence, that the ballot counting machines were not accurately calibrated.  The election supervisor had confirmed their accuracy, by a legally approved procedure, but Judd and Crosby, spouting unfounded conspiracy theories, still refused to certify the results, which was a violation of state law.  The third supervisor, Ann English, did vote to certify the results, and is not being charged.   

Enforcing the Law Will Protect Election Integrity

Public officials, regardless of the level of government on which they serve, must obey the law.  They are not given the privilege of determining, on their own, what is right or wrong.  They are responsible to the people who elected them.  They do not have the right to interject false conspiracy theories, based on outright lies, into county policy, especially where ballot counting is concerned.  

The consequences of the failure of these two supervisors to act in accordance with the law could have been disastrous.  Aside from completely disenfranchising every registered voter in the county who cast a ballot, regardless of who they voted for, if the count had remained uncertified, it would have changed the results of the election in several races, including the one for US Representative in Congress.  The Republican candidate, Juan Ciscomani, won his seat on the strength of the Republican vote from Cochise County.  Had the votes not been certified, his Democratic opponent would have defeated him.  

An example needs to be made out of those who fail to perform their patriotic and democratic duty by following the law when the public trust is involved.  I don't know what the penalty is for the felony that these two supervisors committed, but if it's prison, so be it.  The message can be sent from this case, in this small Arizona county, that messing with an election is a crime and it has a penalty that costs the criminal who commits it. Hopefully, that will deter others who want to manipulate elections just because they have the power to do so.  

And if their resignations as supervisors is not part of the penalty of law, then the voters need to throw these two criminals out of office, either at the next election, or by recall, which is allowed in Arizona.