CNN
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The Republican supervisor responsible for certifying November election results in Arizona’s third-most populous county claims fellow county officials conspired to fabricate a lopsided loss in the sheriff’s primary. However, this claim was recently reversed by an independent investigator. Still, when it came time to certify the results at a recent board meeting, Pinal County Supervisor Kevin Kavanaugh declared he was only voting “under duress.”
It’s been years since former President Donald Trump and his allies made unsubstantiated claims that widespread fraud led to their 2020 loss, and key battleground states have seen rampant election fraud. Suspicions are swirling. Similarly, conflicts have arisen over voting rules and the once-obscure task of officially certifying vote tallies required by state law, critical to certifying the results of next month’s presidential election and dissenting votes. This is a step. contest.
But as Election Day approaches, state officials say polls are showing it could be another tough election, meaning the White House will be dominated by President Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. He said that he is actively working to prevent confusion over the dispute. These measures include educating judges about the strict deadlines election officials face under state and federal law and, in the most extreme cases, criminal charges against those who resist doing their jobs.
Election officials say they hope these measures will curb any post-election chaos.
In Wisconsin, a battleground state where election conspiracy theories took root after President Joe Biden flipped the state in 2020, Ann Jacobs, chair of the state election board, said, “What kind of saber rattling? “Even if you can hear it, it will eventually go away,” he said.
“We’ve learned that there are people who go to prison and face long sentences because they falsely believe conspiracy theories about elections,” Jacobs, a Democrat, told reporters at a recent briefing on the state’s election procedures. Ta. “But I think those people are very few and far between.”
Skirmishes over election administration and certification are occurring across the country, with serious consequences for those who violate the rules.
Voting rights groups and government ethics groups say certification delays will have a cascading effect, risking states missing the Dec. 11 deadline for federal certification of presidential elector slates and adding to the chaos and confusion. He said he is especially wary of the possibility of opening the door.
“The sanctity of our elections is beyond question, and we are trying to prevent them from happening, which can and should have serious consequences,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said. said Jordan Libowitz of the organization. The organization recently released a report warning that the threat of accreditation continues.
According to the group’s analysis, since the 2020 election, a total of 35 local officials across the country have refused or threatened to certify the election results.
The tally included two Republican members of Wayne County’s Election Commission, who briefly called into question Michigan’s 2020 election results when they initially refused to certify the county’s tally. , including votes cast for Biden in heavily Democratic Detroit. They relented after a few hours.
Partly in response to the chaotic aftermath of the 2020 election, voters in Michigan, a presidential battleground state, approved a constitutional amendment in 2022 that would, among other things, require election officials to tally the results. It reaffirmed that there is a legal responsibility to certify the situation.
And this year, aides to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced legal and financial challenges to officials in a small rural Upper Peninsula county after two Republican board members voted against certifying votes in local recall elections. warned of the negative impact. Board members quickly recanted.
In North Carolina, another battleground state for the 2024 White House race, the State Board of Elections fired two local election officials last year who refused to certify their county’s results in protest of the state’s election guidance. The company took unprecedented measures to do so.
This is the first time North Carolina authorities have used removal authority in a certification dispute.
And in Arizona, which has been a hotbed of election conspiracy theories since Biden narrowly won the state four years ago, two Republicans on the Cochise County Board of Supervisors were accused of voting denial in January. He is scheduled to go to trial on the charges. Certify the county’s 2022 general election results by the legal deadline.
A grand jury indicted Republican officials Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby on felony charges of conspiracy and election interference. They had resisted certifying the results, citing questions about whether the vote tabulation machines were properly certified. State officials said there was a machine.
Mr. Judd and Mr. Crosby have pleaded not guilty, and both remain members of the county’s three-member Board of Supervisors.
Arizona Democratic Attorney General Chris Mays, who pursued the prosecution of the Cochise officials, said “we’re going to lay down some of the ironclad” on other officials if they refuse to do their jobs, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian said. Mr. Fontes (Democratic Party) clarified. he told reporters recently.
A federal judge last month blocked Mr. Fontes from using what he described as the “nuclear option” he included in the state’s election procedures manual. That would have allowed him to proceed with certifying the state’s election results even if counties refused to certify their own results.
But the ruling also cited other tools at Fontes’ disposal to ensure compliance, including criminal charges against individual supervisors and seeking court orders to compel certification.
Fontes said he and other state officials are “considering” legal strategies to address any challenges that arise before, during and after Election Day. Additionally, he said his office shares important deadlines with judges to ensure legal disputes are resolved quickly.
In Pennsylvania, another key battleground state, where state officials went to court to force three counties to certify the full results of the 2022 midterm elections, Secretary of State Al Schmidt said the judges were “always conscious”. “We are working closely with the judiciary to ensure that the law is maintained.” of the election calendar. ”
Schmidt, a Republican who serves in the administration of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, will soon be tasked with visiting all 67 counties in Pennsylvania in the run-up to Election Day as part of working with local election officials to avoid problems. He said he would finish.
He said he doesn’t expect a repeat of the recent certification drama, but is prepared to deal with it.
“The election officials I’ve met in red counties, blue counties, metropolitan and rural counties have been very professional and I’m confident they’ll be up to the task in November,” Schmidt told CNN. ” he said.
Joanna Lydgate, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Center for State Unity and Democracy, said every effort to block certification since the 2020 election despite concerns across the country pointed out that it had failed.
“This is a ministerial step,” Lydgate told CNN. “This is not the place to resolve questions or concerns about how elections are conducted.”
In Pinal County, a fast-growing region southeast of Phoenix, Kavanaugh sought to do just that, claiming his initial loss in the Pinal County sheriff’s race by a 2-1 margin was tainted by fraud. advanced.
During a controversial hearing on the certification of key results in August, Mr. Kavanaugh repeatedly tried to raise allegations of wrongdoing over the objections of fellow Republican Chairman Mike Goodman. He banged a gavel to silence him and at one point threatened to cut off his opinion. I turned off his microphone.
The former police detective said he first had doubts about the primary because he thought there was an unusually similar pattern in the results of both early and Election Day votes. The formal complaint he filed against the county alleges that workers and other elected officials conspired to “alter the results” and transfer about 35% of his votes to his rivals. Kavanaugh’s assertion that he did so has escalated. He said the notice of claim, which seeks compensation for campaign expenses and attorney fees, is a precursor to possible litigation.
The Pinal election was plagued with issues including errors in ballots and a shortage of ballots during the 2022 midterm elections.
But county officials have forcefully denied Kavanaugh’s claims and said they have confidence in the results of this year’s primary. An independent analysis commissioned by the county and submitted to supervisors last week found “no evidence of fraud, data manipulation or other factors that could have affected the election results.”
Kavanaugh will remain on the board until the end of the year and will be responsible for certifying the November election results in this key battleground state. He said in an interview with CNN earlier this month that he intends to fulfill that responsibility despite claims that he doesn’t trust the way the county administers elections.
“This is a minister’s duty,” he said, referring to the Cochise County prosecutor’s office. “Voting no is not an option for us.”
