Peggy Judd, a Republican county supervisor in Cochise County, Arizona, was indicted by the Arizona Attorney General for failure to perform the duties of an election officer in actions she took to attempt to prevent the certification of the county's ballots in the 2022 mid-term election. Judd's responses when asked about her refusal, were a mish-mash of Trump conspiracy theories and distrust of vote counting machines. When asked to produce evidence of her allegations, she spouted more conspiracy theories and mis-trust of the counting machines, even though an audit had shown they were 100% accurate.
Just minutes after agreeing to the plea deal in which she admitted to guilt, and accepted a downgrading of the felony charges to a misdemeanor to avoid a possible prison sentence, she accused the state attorney general of playing politics in having her arrested for a crime she committed, claiming that if the attorney general were Republican, she would never have been charged.
She was probably right about that last statement. If the attorney general had been a republican, a different set of rules of law enforcement would have been in place. Breaking the law by Republicans, especially election laws that certify results they don't like, would not be considered a crime, because Republicans generally only care about the rule of law when it applies to people they don't like, or who aren't in their party.
And she's lucky the attorney general has been merciful and generous with her, allowing her to plea bargain. Standing there, making accusations and attempting to justify what she had done instead of being grateful for the mercy she had just been shown is deplorable behavior. Her very public reaction could have nullified her plea, on grounds that she was not sincere, and sent her to prison for breaking the law and trying to disenfranchise voters. With that statement following her plea and sentencing, Peggy Judd told the whole world she has no respect for the rule of law, and is completely unqualified to serve in any public office. That should have been the result of her sentencing at any rate.
She and her partner in crime, who rejected the plea bargain and is likely to serve prison time for a felony upon his certain conviction, tried to stop the certification of about 55,000 ballots in the 2022 mid-term election. A veteran county elections supervisor had performed all of the necessary audits and checks to assure the accuracy of the vote count, and there was no reason not to certify the ballots. In fact, the law did not permit county supervisors to question the count or fail to certify. But Judd and Tom Crosby, the other Republican on the board of supervisors, wanted to support Kari Lake, who had lost the election by about 16,000 votes.
Ultimately, Judd and Ann English, the Democrat on the board of supervisors, did vote to certify the ballots, after being ordered to do so by a state judge. Crosby never made an appearance at that meeting.
Even though this case was related to ballot counting, it has nothing to do with politics. The fact of the matter is that Judd conspired with a fellow county supervisor to break the law, based on her belief in a lie. It's obvious, through the whole process, that she was aware what she was doing was illegal and she chose to do it anyway. Even though she voted to certify, under pressure, she had already broken the law by refusing to do so when it was required.
She got off easy, and did not get prosecuted and sentenced to prison. She should be grateful, not a whiner.
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